A very inspirational person - Jeannette Pickering Rankin
- Jun 22
- 1 min read
Jeannette Pickering Rankin was born on June 11th, 1880 in Montana. She was an American politician and a staunch women's rights' advocate. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from Montana in 1916 at the age of 36, becoming the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. This was before women had the right to vote. She ran again and was elected in 1941, and remains the only woman elected to Congress from Montana.
A lifelong pacifist, she was one of 50 House members who opposed the declaration of war on Germany in 1917, and in 1941, she was the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor. In her later years, she led protests against the Vietnam War and actively campaigned for nuclear disarmament.
A keen suffragist, while in Congress, she introduced legislation that eventually became the 19th Constitutional Amendment, granting women the right to vote. She championed a multitude of other civil rights, including child labor laws and education reform, and in 1920 she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. She died in 1973.
Among many great quotes, she said:
"The greatest threat to peace is the barrage of rightist propaganda portraying war as decent, honorable, and patriotic."
"We're half the people; we should be half the Congress."
"I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last."
