A Woman's Run for President -- Before There Was a Gender Gap

Belva Lockwood would have had a thing or two to say about the 1996 election. A hundred years ago, in 1888, this noted lawyer ran for President of the United States on the Equal Rights party ticket - for the second time. Lockwood first threw her hat into the ring in the 1884 election to give voters a real choice. She complained that the Republicans and Democrats "have raised no great moral or political issue" and offer nothing but "the same old platitudes" - anticipating the feelings of many voters today. Lockwood's running mate, an outspoken Oakland, California, newspaper editor named Marietta Stow, entered the fray with an all-out attack on the Republican party, which she accused of being "a sex aristocrat with a blue blood pedigree" that "loves an obedient woman" while "a rebellious one it spews out of its mouth." Fortunately, according to Stow, the party was "dying of dry rot plethora" and would soon be out of the picture. Four years later the Equal Rights party once again nominated Lockwood, but with a man as her running mate, just to be fair - Alfred H. Love of Philadelphia, president of the Universal Peace Union. "The campaign is getting on swimmingly," Lockwood reported as she toured the country. "Very large crowds of people gather to hear me."