JEANETTE RANKIN

(1880-1973)

March is Women's History Month; time to bring greater focus to the contributions of women.

Jeanette Pickering Rankin holds an esteemed place in United States history as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and the only member of Congress to vote against two world wars. She made a name for herself as a skilled lobbyist, organizer, politician, and pacifist.

She fused her suffrage and pacifist leanings whiles organizing Washington’s suffrage campaign. As a lobbyist for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Rankin organized and campaigned for woman suffrage in over fifteen states. She successfully ran for Montana’s House of Representatives in 1917 and distinguished herself as a pacifist and a sponsor of protective legislation for women and children.

Montanans were disillusioned with her pacifist stance and would not reelect her again until 1940. In the meantime Rankin worked for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the National Consumer’s League, and National Council for the Prevention of War. After World War II she continued her pacifist work and went to India to study Ghandi’s philosophies. She espoused anti-war sentiments again in the 1960s during the Vietnam War and made a final reemergence into national politics.

Throughout her career Rankin compromised neither her belief in pacifism nor women’s rights.

Source:  National Women's History Museum