Abstract Relying on a rhetorical strategy known as the New Departure, Victoria Woodhull went before the House Judiciary Committee in 1871 to defend woman's suffrage. Although her address captured the respect of her contemporaries, Woodhull's contribution to the fight for woman's suffrage has yet to be recognized. As she displayed rhetorical competence in a once exclusively male rhetorical space, Woodhull embodied the subjectivity of a public woman for her immediate and extended audiences. Notes 1I thank RR reviewers Susan Kates and Nan Johnson for their invaluable feedback. I am also grateful for Shirley Wilson Logan's direction as I worked on this essay for my MA Writing Project at the University of Maryland, College Park.