Jeannette Rankin

Jeannette Rankin was born on June 11, 1880 outside of Missoula, Montana. Her father, John Rankin, was a rancher and businessman. Her mother, Olive Rankin, was a schoolteacher. Jeanette was the eldest of seven children, and she had a lot of responsibilities growing up. She helped her mother care for their home and raise her younger siblings. She helped her father with small jobs around their ranch. Jeannette noticed early in life that women in western communities like hers were expected to work alongside men, but were rarely given the same rights. 

Jeannette graduated from University of Montana in 1902. For the next few years, she explored a variety of career options before moving to New York City to study social work at the School of Philanthropy in 1908. She briefly worked as a social worker in Seattle, Washington before joining the women’s suffrage movement. She campaigned for women’s suffrage in Washington, California, Montana, New York, and Washington, D.C. In 1911 she became the first woman to speak before the Montana state legislature. In 1912 she served as the field secretary for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

In 1914 Montana became the seventh state to pass women’s suffrage laws. Jeanette decided to find out if her state’s new women voters could use their influence to elect a woman candidate. With financial support from her family, Jeannette ran for one of Montana’s seats in the United States House of Representatives in 1916. Jeanette travelled all over Montana to speak to voters about her progressive platform, which included national women’s suffrage, social welfare, and pacifism. On August 29, 1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the US Congress. When she learned of her victory, she said, “I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last.”

Jeannette was sworn in as a new member of Congress on April 2, 1917. She was sworn in late because Congress was debating whether or not a woman could legally serve. That same day, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to approve the US’ entrance into World War I. Jeannette was a lifelong pacifist, but she also knew that her position as the first woman representative carried great responsibility. For most of the 1800s the suffrage movement had been tied to pacifism. For many decades, suffragists had claimed that since women were the country’s mothers and caretakers, granting women the right to vote would lead to the dawn of a new era of peace and justice. But when World War I broke out in 1914, the suffrage movement became divided on this issue. Many suffragists supported the war effort and begged Jeannette to do the same. They worried that opposing the war would make women look weak and hurt the chances of future women candidates. Despite this, Jeannette ran on a pacifist platform.

Jeannette spent days weighing her options. She attended the debates that took place on the House floor but remained silent throughout. When it came time for her to vote, Jeannette broke protocol to issue the following statement: “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote no.” Jeanette’s vote left her in the minority. Out of the 423 members of the House of Representatives, only fifty voted against the US entering World War I. Many suffragists distanced themselves from Jeannette and condemned her actions. NAWSA even released a statement saying that she did not speak for its members.

In spite of this, Jeannette remained an important member of the suffrage movement. She sat on the House committees on women’s suffrage and opened the House’s first debate about the national suffrage amendment. Jeannette also worked hard to find solutions to problems that were important to the people of Montana. She defended the rights of miners and laborers and took an interest in public land use.

“I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last.”

In the 1918 election Jeannette faced a strong challenger. Fearing that she would lose her seat in the House, she decided to run for Senate instead. Jeannette lost that race because most voters did not want a pacifist senator during a popular war.

For the next twenty years Jeannette worked as a lobbyist. She met with members of Congress to encourage them to avoid involving the US in future wars. Jeanette worked on behalf of the Women’s International League, the Women’s Peace Union, and the National Council for the Prevention of War. In addition to peace work, she also worked with the National Consumers League to pass laws to protect child and adult workers.

In 1940 just after the outbreak of World War II, Jeannette ran for the House of Representatives again. In the early years of the war, many Americans were anxious to keep the US from entering the fight. Jeanette campaigned on an anti-war platform and won. But after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Jeannette found herself in a familiar situation. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called on Congress to support a declaration of war. Because the US had been openly attacked, most Americans now supported entering the war. But Jeannette was still a committed pacifist.

This time, Jeannette asked to speak during the House debates, but the Speaker of the House did not give her a chance. Many of her colleagues encouraged her to abstain from voting, to protect herself from backlash. But when it was Jeannette’s turn to vote, she once again issued a statement: “As a woman, I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.” Jeanette was the only member of Congress to vote against entering World War II. Her statement was met with boos and jeers from her peers in Congress. Her vote was so controversial that she had to hide until guards could safely escort her back to her office. 

Jeannette knew that her anti-war stance would likely end her political career, but she refused to sacrifice her integrity. She reminded critics that she had been elected because of her anti-war platform and had fulfilled her promise. Her colleagues and constituents shunned her, and Jeannette did little during the rest of her term. She did not run for re-election in 1942. Instead, she returned to Montana, where she stayed until her mother’s death in 1947.

Jeannette returned to peace activism in the 1950s. She traveled around the world speaking, volunteering, and organizing with other pacifists. She believed the world could achieve peace if countries were willing to shrink their militaries and move toward disarmament.

The Vietnam War brought new urgency to Jeanette’s work. She argued that there was little difference between the war in Vietnam and the two world wars she had opposed in Congress. As she saw it, in all cases young soldiers were dying for no good reason. In January 1968 Jeannette led 5,000 women in a march on Washington, D.C., to protest the war. They called themselves the Jeannette Rankin Brigade.

The New York Times interviewed Jeannette in 1971, when she was ninety-one. When the reporter asked if she would go back in time and change anything in her life, Jeannette replied that she would do it the same, “but this time I’d be nastier.”

Jeannette Rankin died on May 18, 1973. At the time of her death she was considering a third run for Congress to oppose the Vietnam War.