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Home » Resources » Featured Suffragists » Jeannette Rankin

Jeannette Rankin

November 27, 2016 By Admin

Jeannette Rankin 1880-1973

jeannette_rankin_portraitJeannette Rankin is best known as the first woman elected to Congress. She ran in 1916 to represent her home state of Montana as a progressive Republican and served from 1917-1919. Her younger brother Wellington, later to hold statewide office in Montana himself, financed her campaign. Unusually, she ran for and won a second term more than 20 years later, in 1940, serving again from 1941-1943. To this date, Rankin remains the only woman ever elected to Congress from Montana.

j-rankin-quoteHer activities in office reflected her consistent concerns: equality and better services for women, child welfare reform and an end to child labor, support for copper miners and pacifism. It was her pacifism, expressed as a vote against entry into World War I only four days after being sworn into Congress, that limited her political future. Despite concerns by some, including Carrie Chapman Catt, that Rankin’s pacifism would hurt the cause of suffrage, others, such as Alice Paul, supported her stance. While in Congress, Rankin worked on legislation that eventually led to the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women throughout the U.S. the right to vote.

rankin-later-lifeIn Rankin’s later, second term in office, she again voted against entry into war: this time, World War II. Years later, on January 15, 1968 she led some 5,000 members of the “Jeannette Rankin Brigade” in a protest march against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Together with 15 other women, including Coretta Scott King, Rankin then presented a petition on the same topic to House Speaker (and Massachusetts Democrat) John McCormack on behalf of the Women’s Strike for Peace.

Rankin’s life encompassed both “first wave” feminism as a suffragist and the “second wave” feminism of the early 70s. As a young woman and in her older years, Rankin’s life was both adventurous and active. She participated in the March 3, 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, DC, prior to Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, viewed by hundreds of thousands of onlookers. She traveled widely all her life, throughout the U.S. and to such far-flung destinations as New Zealand and India. She attempted, but failed, to create a women’s commune on property she owned back in the U.S., in Georgia.

Rankin was well educated, graduating in 1902 with a bachelor’s degree in biology from what was to become the University of Montana. She spent time visiting her beloved brother Wellington Rankin, a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of both Harvard College and its Law School, in Boston, where she learned furniture design, but also toured the city’s slums. The latter experience propelled her to enroll in what became the Columbia University School of Social Work. Social work organizations claim her as an important professional. Interestingly, she practiced social work only briefly, in Spokane, Washington, subsequently enrolling in a range of courses at the University of Washington in Seattle.

rankin-suffrage-movementIn 1910 she began her career in the women’s suffrage movement, serving as a professional lobbyist for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In December of that year, she became the first woman to speak to the Montana legislature. In large part due to Rankin’s efforts, Montana enacted women’s suffrage in 1914, as did Nevada, joining nine other western states.

In addition to her legacy in Congress as a suffragist, an advocate for women and the poor, and a pacifist, Rankin left tangible benefits through her property in Georgia, which initially funded what is now the Jeannette Rankin Women’s Scholarship Fund. The fund was established to award scholarships to help impoverished “mature” women (over 35) succeed through education. To date the fund has awarded more than $2 million in scholarships to nearly 800 women.

Rankin’s papers are housed, among other places, at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, at Harvard University. Her statue stands in National Statuary Hall, Washington, D.C. (photo, right).

Read more about Jeannette Rankin

  1. Jeannette Rankin: A Political Woman, by James J. Lopach and Jean A. Luckowski, 2005, University Press of Colorado, 317 pages.
  2. Jeannette Rankin: Political Pioneer, by Gretchen Woelfle, 2007, Calkins Creek, 104 pages. For young adults.
  3. Jeannette Rankin, First Lady in Congress: A Biography, by Hannah Josephson, Bobbs-Merrill, 1974, 227 pages.

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Suffragists Support #StopAsianHate

March 2021

Dear Suffrage100MA Community,

Suffrage100MA stands with the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Community and grieves for the eight victims recently murdered in Georgia, six of whom were women of Asian descent.  Carry the victims in your hearts, light candles for them, learn about their lives:  Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Paul Andre Michels, Soon Chung Park, Ziaojie Tan, Delaina Yaun and Young Ae Yue.

The words of this song from the 1949 musical “South Pacific” are more applicable than ever:

You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

“You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” was a highly controversial song, but thankfully, ultimately included in the show. The song was written to address racism against Asians and all people.  The character Lt. Cable, a Caucasian man who has fallen in love with an Asian woman, is distressed by the prejudice against interracial couples and racism in general, sang the song after saying the words “…racism is not born in you! It happens after you’re born…”

James Taylor recorded the song in Nov. 2020.

We must work to end the racism that is “…drummed in your dear little ear…”

In 2020, hate crimes against Asian Americans are up almost 150 percent.  Discrimination against the Asian community has existed in this country since Asians arrived in the late 19th century.  Asians faced discrimination against dignity and equality, and were denied citizenship and the right to vote until the middle of the 20thcentury. After the 19th Amendment was adopted extending the vote to women, discriminatory laws prevented Asian Americans, Native Americans and African Americans from voting for decades and today the crisis for voter accessibility is growing.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “In a backlash to historic voter turnout in the 2020 general election, and grounded in a rash of baseless and racist allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities, legislators have introduced well over four times the number of bills to restrict voting access as compared to roughly this time last year. Thirty-three states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 165 restrictive bills this year (as compared to 35 such bills in fifteen states on February 3, 2020).”

Suffrage100MA is committed to increasing accessibility to the ballot and inspiring voters to exercise their right to vote by sharing the history of those who fought bravely, sometimes losing their lives, for decades and across centuries, to secure the vote.  Let us each recognize the power and importance of voting to express one’s voice

On behalf of the Suffrage100MA Board of Directors –
With deep appreciation to all of you for being on this journey with us,

Fredie Kay
Founder & President, Suffrage100MA