Jeannette Rankin: First Woman in Congress, Famous Pacifist

Born in Missoula, Montana in 1880, Jeannette Rankin was making an impact before she was even 20 years old. After attending Montana State University and Columbia University for social work, she spent time in Spokane as a social worker before she decided to go to the University of Washington. During her time in Seattle for school, she learned of women's suffrage and activism, and she became deeply inspired, working to win the vote for women in Washington in 1910 due to her lobbying in the National American Women Suffrage Association. Having seen suffrage become successful first hand, she hoped to bring suffrage to her home state of Montana, so she returned there to lobby for NAWSA, winning suffrage for women in 1914.

Not one to be stopped by traditional boundaries, Rankin hoped to make even more of a difference running for the US House of Representatives in 1916. She was not the first woman ever to run, but women in the federal government was definitely considered crazy by most, and it definitely was not an easy road for her (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, famous women's rights activist, ran in 1866 in New York, receiving only 24 votes). Well-known from her work with NAWSA, Rankin ran as a progressive who hoped to gain national suffrage for women and improve social welfare for the country. Rankin ended up winning her race, becoming one of the two representatives for Montana's district at-large.

Rankin was now the first woman to ever be in Congress. Right off the bat, there were things happening, as World War I had been brewing in Europe and soon Congress was taking a vote about whether America would be participating. Not wanting to stir up trouble in her hard-won, brand new seat, Rankin decided it would be unwise to debate war on the floor, which she later regretted, but she felt strongly against war, casting one of 50 votes against entering the war.

Next, Rankin kept her promise, fighting hard for women's suffrage. A Committee for Women's Suffrage was created in 1917, which she was asked to head, and in early 1918 an amendment for women's suffrage was out on the floor. Not to lose her right to speak again, Rankin bravely opened the floor, addressing her 434 male counterparts in the House, trying to convince them to bring full democracy about in America by giving women the vote. Her convincing speech won the votes of enough representatives that women's suffrage passed the House to the cheers of women watching from the balcony. Unfortunately for all women, the amendment died in the Senate, where there were no women to vouch for the cause. It would take almost 2 years before women would gain suffrage.

With quite a successful career in a year and a half, Rankin began looking towards a second term (US representatives are reelected every 2 years). During her term in Congress, Montana transitioned from having two representatives from an at-large district (2 representing the whole state) from one representing each of two districts. Using a modern term to describe what happened, the districts were gerrymandered by Montana Democrats to purposely make it impossible for Rankin to win reelection. Stuck now in Montana's highly pro-war, Democratic western district, the Republican pacifist knew she had no chance of winning.

But Rankin kept trying. Unphased, she began her campaign for the 1918 Montana Senate election, taking second in a three way race at the Republican primary and losing by an incredibly narrow margin of only 2,000 votes.

Nothing could stop Rankin from pursuing her activism. From 1919-1940, she continued pursuing her main causes of women's rights and welfare on both the national and international scale.

In the late 1930s, she began to notice the signs of another war developing in Europe, and not wanting the US dragged into another war, she pursued reelection to the House at the age of 60. This Congress was all about war, just as she had predicted, and she aggressively fought for pacifism from the US. While for a while, many considered her a great figurehead of the antiwar movement, but when she continued her pacifist stance after the Pearl Harbor attacks, she became very unpopular very fast. Near the end of 1941, she did what she is most well known for: she was the only person in the House to vote against American entry of WWII.

After this vote, the rest of this term was fairly irrelevant to most, as she was ignored by the press and her fellow representatives. She became wildly unpopular with the pro-war American public, at times having to take shelter in phone booths and wait for police escorts to work to avoid the crowds.

For the rest of her life, she continued to pursue and advance welfare, women's rights, and pacifism, admiring Gandhi for the success of his nonviolence. She continued to inspire women across America to chase their dreams and take action in their government.

At the age of 93, she died in Carmel in 1973. Fitting to her character, she was working on her campaign for a third term in the House when she died, inspired by her strong feelings against the Vietnam. If she had lived to be elected, she would have been the oldest representative to date.

Jeannette Rankin continues to inspire people today to take action in government even in the face of difficulty and to stand up for what they believe in.

Pictured above are Rankin's congressional portrait, an image of her working tirelessly for justice after her second term in the House, and her statue in the DC's Statuary Hall.



https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Jeannette_Rankin.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/jeannette-rankin
http://history.house.gov/People/Listing/R/RANKIN,-Jeannette-(R000055)/
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-jeannette-rankin