Jeannette Rankin
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| Jeannette Rankin | |
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| In office 1917-1919 (2nd district) 1941-1943 (1st district) |
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| Preceded by | Tom Stout (1st term) Jacob Thorkelson (2nd term) |
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| Succeeded by | Carl W. Riddick (1st term) Mike Mansfield (2nd term) |
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| Born | 11 June 1880 Missoula, Montana |
| Died | 18 May 1973 Carmel, California |
| Political party | Republican |
| Profession | Social worker, activist |
| Religion | Unknown |
Jeannette Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives and the first female member of Congress. A Republican and a lifelong pacifist, she was the only member of Congress to vote against United States entry into World War II and one of fifty to vote against World War I. Additionally, she led resistance to the Vietnam War.
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[edit] Early life and suffrage movement
Rankin, the daughter of a rancher and a schoolteacher, was born in Missoula, Montana. She attended the University of Montana and graduated in 1902.
In 1908, she moved to New York City, where she started a career as a social worker. She later moved to Seattle, Washington, and then enrolled at the University of Washington, where she joined the incipient suffrage movement. She played an instrumental role in the movement's fight to grant women the right to vote in Montana, brought to fruition in 1914.
[edit] Congressional career
On November 7, 1916 she was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican from Montana, becoming the first female member of Congress. On April 6, 1917, only four days into her term, the House voted on the resolution to enter World War I. Rankin cast one of 50[1] votes against the resolution, earning her immediate vilification from the press. Suffrage groups cancelled her speaking engagements. Despite her vote against entering the war, she devoted herself to selling Liberty Bonds and voted for the military draft.
In 1918, she ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination to represent Montana in the United States Senate. She then ran an independent candidacy, which also failed. Her term as Representative ended early in 1919. For the next two decades, she worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. for various causes.
In 1918 and again in 1919, she introduced legislation to provide state and federal funds for health clinics, midwife education, and visiting nurse programs in an effort to reduce the nation's infant mortality. While serving as a field secretary for the National Consumers' League, she campaigned for legislation to promote maternal and child health care. As a lobbyist, Rankin argued for passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act, an infant and maternal health bill which was the first federal social welfare program created explicitly for women and children. As an effect of the bill, maternal and infant mortality rates improved significantly. The legislation, however, was not enacted until 1921 and was repealed just eight years later.
She was founding Vice-President of the American Civil Liberties Union and a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
In 1940, Rankin was again elected to Congress, this time on an anti-war platform. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, she once again voted against entering a World War, the only member of Congress to do so, saying "As a woman, I can't go to war and I refuse to send anyone else. I vote 'NO'". However she did not vote against declaring war on Germany and Italy following their declaration of war on the U.S. Instead, she voted merely "Present."
Rankin did not bother to run for re-election because she became so unpopular from her decision. During the remainder of her life, she traveled to India seven times and was a devotee of Gandhian principles of non-violence and self-determination.
[edit] Post-congressional activities
A fan of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968, Rankin led more than 5,000 women who called themselves "The Jeannette Rankin Brigade" to the United States Capitol to demonstrate their opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Coretta Scott King and Judy Collins were among the luminaries who attended.
[edit] Death and legacy
Rankin died in Carmel, California at the age of 92 from natural causes. Rankin bequeathed her property in Watkinsville, Georgia to help "mature, unemployed women workers." This was the seed money for the Jeannette Rankin Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization that gives educational grants annually to low-income women all across the United States. In 1985, a statue of her was placed in the United States Capitol's Statuary Hall.
[edit] Notes
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Suffragists Oral History Project at Berkeley - 1971-72 interviews with Rankin
- Jeannette Rankin Foundation
- Jeannette Rankin Peace Center
- Peace is a Woman's Job, play and film about Rankin by actor/playwright, Allyson Adams
- A Single Woman - play and film about Rankin by actor/playwright, Jeanmarie Simpson
| Preceded by Tom Stout |
United States Representative for the 2nd Congressional District of Montana 1917–1919 |
Succeeded by Carl W. Riddick |
| Preceded by Jacob Thorkelson |
United States Representative for the 1st Congressional District of Montana 1941–1943 |
Succeeded by Mike Mansfield |
en:Jeannette Rankin
