Basic Information

Jeannette Pickering Rankin is best known as the first woman elected to a federal office in the United States.  She served two terms in the House of Representatives for the state of Montana.  Her terms corresponded with World War I and World War II, and she was the only member of Congress to vote against the U.S. entering both wars.  Rankin’s political goals were to improve the lives of women and children.  She was a suffragist, pacifist, and civil rights activist (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).

Background Information

Jeannette Rankin was born June 11, 1880 near Missoula, Montana.  Her parents were Olive, a schoolteacher, and John Rankin, a rancher.  They were white and despite living in a frontier area, Montana became a state in 1889, were wealthy enough to afford college education and disposable income for both Jeannette and her brother, Wellington, to participate in the political scene.

In 1902, Rankin graduated from Montana State University, now the University of Montana, where she majored in biology (Finneman, 2015, p. 44).  After the death of her father, she reconnected with her brother, then a student at Harvard.  While visiting major cities on the east and west coast, she saw extreme social inequality and decided to enter social work.  She attended the New York School of Philanthropy, now the Columbia University School of Social Work, and the University of Washington.  While in Washington, she joined the women’s suffrage movement.  Rankin believed that women having the right to vote would lead to legislature for protecting children and social reform (Finneman, 2015, p. 45).

Contributions to the First Wave

Rankin joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and became a speaker and lobbyist.  She spoke at events in New York but worked primarily in western states, where the suffrage movement was relatively successful.  Her home state, Montana, ratified women’s suffrage in 1914 (Finneman, 2015, p. 50).

In 1916, women in Montana would have their first opportunity to vote in a federal election.  Rankin ran for House Representative on the Republican ticket as a nonpartisan with a platform of social reform, federal suffrage, prohibition, maternal and infant health, and child welfare (Finneman, 2015, p. 50).  Her brother helped fund and support her campaign, but support within the Republican party and the suffrage movement was mixed.  NAWSA presidents, Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, opposed a woman running for political office because they feared how failure or incompetence would reflect on the movement as they worked for federal suffrage (Finneman, 2015, p. 50).  Rankin remained aware of how her actions and reputation affected others, saying, “I am deeply conscious of the responsibility resting upon me” (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).

Rankin won and took her first seat in the 65th Congress on April 2, 1917 during an early special session called to discuss the Great War in Europe.  German submarines assaulted the Atlantic shipping lanes, and Congress debated whether to enter the war.  Rankin voted against sending men overseas, saying “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war.  I vote no” (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).  The final count was 373 for, and 50 against.  Her vote was met with a backlash from the press and the suffrage movement.  She was called names, “a dagger in the hands of the German propagandists, a dupe of the Kaiser, a member of the Hun army in the United States, and a crying schoolgirl,” and the NAWSA put out a statement to distance themselves from her decision, “Miss Rankin was not voting for the suffragists of the nation—she represents Montana” (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).

With World War I ongoing, Rankin became an advocate for, and was appointed to, the Committee on Woman Suffrage.  In January 1918, Rankin opened the committee’s first debate.  She argued that Congress had made the decision to go to war, but many women still had no say in the matter.  “How shall we answer their challenge, gentlemen?  How shall we explain to them the meaning of democracy if the same Congress that voted for war to make the world safe for democracy refuses to give this small measure of democracy to the women of our country?” (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).  The resolution succeeded in the House of Representatives but not the Senate.  Rankin’s term was up in 1919, but the 19th Amendment would finally pass that June and be ratified in 1920 (US Const., amend. IX).

Rankin created, participated in, and spoke for many groups advocating pacifism, including the Georgia Peace Society, which she founded, and the National Council for the Prevention of War.  She served as secretary for the National Consumers League and lobbied against child labor and for greater medical and financial support for mothers and infants (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).

Rankin ran for House of Representatives in Montana in 1940, while World War II ravaged Europe.  Commenting on how it was no longer unusual to elect a woman to Congress she said, “no one will pay any attention to me this time” (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).  She was partially correct.  The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 8, 1941, Congress met to debate declaring war on Japan.  The Senate voted unanimously in support of declaring war.  The House was in such a state that, although she tried, Rankin was prevented from speaking.  The final vote was 388 for and 1 against.  Rankin was the only person to vote against declaring war and entering World War II, saying “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else” (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).  The backlash this time was so intense, police were required to escort her from the congress building.  Soon after, the U.S. declared war on Germany and its allies, a vote Rankin entered as “present.”  While she went on to serve in the Committee on Public Lands and the Committee on Insular Affairs, her political career was effectively over (Finneman, 2015, p. 50).

After the war, Rankin continued to support pacifist movements.  She respected Mohandas Gandhi for his non-violent resistance in support of Indian decolonization.  In January 1968, she formed her own protest, the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, in which 5000 people marched from Union Station to the Capitol Building and delivered a petition to end the Vietnam War.  She even considered running for House Representative again to amplify opposition to the war (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).

Rankin never married.  She died May 18, 1973 in California at age 92 (History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, 2019).

Babies are dying from cold and hunger.  Soldiers have died for lack of a woolen shirt.  Might it not be that the men who have spent their lives thinking in terms of commercial profit find it hard to adjust themselves to thinking in terms of human needs?  Might it not be that a great force that has always been thinking in terms of human needs, and that always will think in terms of human needs, has not been mobilized?  Is it not possible that the women of the country have something of value to give the nation at this time?

~ Jeannette Rankin (Tharoor, 2016)

Analysis and Conclusion

Rankin’s most obvious contribution to first wave feminism may be her unprecedented service as the first woman in Congress or her work as a suffragist who helped a few western states grant local women the right to vote.  However, it was her more radical belief in pacifism that became her unique addition to the early feminist movement and U.S. history.  To Rankin, pacifism was part of feminism.  She believed that if more women had political, legislative, and social influence, there would be less violence (Tharoor, 2016).

Rankin believed that women inherently cared about “human needs,” family health, safe and adequate living conditions, and basic needs.  Because women had no representation or means of participation in legislature, it made sense that these human needs had been largely forgotten about by a lawmaking body made up entirely of men.  Cooperation and equity between the sexes meant that men’s “natural” ambition, industry, and aggression could be balanced by feminine “natures” like compassion, motherhood, and pacifism (Finneman, 2015, p. 45, 71).  While today this may seem stereotypically feminine, not to mention potentially limited to a gender binary, poverty and inadequate maternal and childcare were very real issues at the time.  For many Americans, they still are.

References

Bain News Service, P.  (1917).  Jeannette Rankin, 1917. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2014704009/.

T. Chapman, K. (1917) Miss Jeannette Rankin, of Montana, speaking from the balcony of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Monday, April 2. Montana United States, 1917. Apr. 2. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000156/.

Finneman, T.  (2015).  Press portrayals of women politicians, 1870s-2000s:  From “lunatic” Woodhull to “polarizing” Palin.  Lexington Books:  Maryland.

History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives.  (2019, October, 30).  Rankin, Jeannette.  Washington, D.C.  Retrieved from https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/R/RANKIN,-Jeannette-(R000055)/.

Tharoor, I.  (2016, December, 8).  The only U.S. politician to vote against war with Japan 75 years ago was this remarkable woman.  Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/08/the-only-u-s-politician-to-vote-against-war-with-japan-75-years-ago-was-this-remarkable-woman/.

Wyckoff, W. B.  (2011, May, 18).  The first woman in congress: A crusader for peace.  Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/135521203/the-first-woman-in-congress-a-crusader-for-peace.