Belva Ann
Lockwood was born in New York in 1830. After leaving college she became
a school teacher. Later she joined the campaign to obtain equal pay
for women teachers.
A member
of the American
Woman Suffrage Association
Lockwood
moved to Washington in 1866 and played
a major role in persuading Congress to pass the 1872 bill guaranteeing
female government employees equal pay for equal work.
In 1872
Lockwood joined the Equal
Rights Party.
Although
laws prohibited women from voting, there was nothing stopping women
from running for office and Victoria Woodhull
became the party's presidential candidate.
During
the campaign Woodhull called for the "reform of political and
social abuses; the emancipation of labor, and the enfranchisement
of women". Woodhull also argued in favour of improved civil rights
and the abolition of capital punishment. These policies gained her
the support of socialists, trade
unionists and women suffragists. However,
conservative leaders of the American
Woman Suffrage Association,
such as Susan
Anthony and
Elizabeth
Cady Stanton,
were shocked by some of her more extreme ideas and supported Horace
Greeley in
the election.
Lockwood now decided to
become a lawyer and studied at the District of Columbia law school.
She obtained her degree but was barred from practice in the Court
of Claims and the United States Supreme Court. In 1873 a judge ruled
that could not work as a lawyer in Maryland. He told her: "Women
are not needed in the courts. Their place is in the home to wait upon
their husbands, to bring up the children, to cook the meals, make
beds, polish pans and dust furniture."
In 1876 Lockwood drafted
a bill which would permit women to practice before the United States
Supreme Court. It took her three years to persuade Congress to pass
the bill and in 1879 became the first woman to be admitted to practice
before the nation's highest tribunal.
In 1884 Lockwood became
Equal
Rights Party presidential
candidate. Her campaign created a great deal of hostility and she
only won 4,149 votes and was easily beaten by Grover
Cleveland (4,874,986),
James
Blaine (4,851,981),
Benjamin
Butler (175,370)
and John
St. John (150,369).
For the rest of her life
Lockwood continued to campaign for women's rights and international
peace. She successfully campaigned for women to have equal property
rights in the District of Columbia and established the International
Peace Bureau. Belva
Ann Lockwood died
in 1917.
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