Hillary Clinton is the first woman to receive a nomination from a major national party, but she's not the first woman to run for President.
Nearly 50 years before women earned the right to vote, Victoria Woodhull ran for the Equal Rights Party in 1872. Then in the 1880's a woman from Niagara County ran twice. Belva Lockwood was the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court. She got 4,100 votes in an age when half the electorate - women - still could not vote and most blacks were still disenfranchised.
In 1940, Gracie Allen from Surprise Party run for US presidential election. Allen, who's political slogan was "Down with common sense, vote for Gracie" and vowed to resolve the California-Florida boundary dispute, seized the nation's attention with a series of campaign stops and satirical policy platform. It's estimated that she received 42,000 votes in November.
In 1968, Charlene Mitchell from Communist Party USA was the first African-American woman to be nominated for president. The ticket, which made it onto only two state ballots, received just over 1,000 votes.
In 1972, Linda Jenness from Socialist Worker's Party was the youngest presidential candidate at age 31. Jenness was an outspoken anti-war candidate and vocal critic of rival nominees.
Margaret Wright from People's Party was the presidential candidate in 1976. The World War II shipyard worker featured in the 1980 documentary "The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter" fronted the People's Party ticket, a coalition of various socialist and anti-war organizations. The party received 49,016 votes.
Then in 1980, Ellen McCormack was a Democrat nominee. After a successful run as a Democrat that earned her 238,000 primary votes and raised over $500,000 in campaign contributions, McCormack's 1980 campaign received 32,000 votes in the three states in which she qualified.
In 1984, Sonia Johnson ran for President as the candidate of Citizens Party. The Citizens Party, an umbrella organization for environmental, feminist, and far left groups critical of the Carter administration, received 72,161 votes in a fifth place finish. Johnson, a Mormon who had been excommunicated from the church, went on to found Wildfire, a separatist commune for women.
In 1988, Fulani ran for President as the candidate of the New Alliance Party. Fulani was the first woman and the first African-American to appear on the ballot nationwide. She won 225,000 votes, which was the highest a female candidate ever received in a general election.
The six-term Democratic congresswoman from Georgia Cynthia McKinney abandoned her party to head the Green Party ticket. Running on a platform that called for an end to the war in Iraq. McKinney received 161,797 votes.
In 2012, Jill Stein Fulani ran for President as the candidate of Green Party. Stein’s 500,000 votes still ranks as the record for most earned by a female presidential candidate.In Stein’s 500,000 votes still ranks as the record for most earned by a female presidential candidate.
The campaign of Republican candidate Donald Trump faces enormous criticism following the publication of audio comments degrading women and describing Clinton as 'very bad', prompting some Republican leaders to call for his withdrawal from the race, and at a time when Hillary emphasized that women have the power to stop Trump.
The Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is betting on wining the votes of independent women voters, who will have a major role in deciding the election results in view of Trump's attitudes towards women.
In a scenario similar to that of US presidential election in 2012 when women voted for Obama, it seems that women will have active participation in 2016 elections, especially as national opinion polls put the percentage of women voters who support Clinton at 55% compared to 40% for Trump.

Source: QNA