Jeannette Rankin and Carrie Chapman Catt stand in the back of a convertible outside the National American Woman Suffrage Association offices, Washington, District of Columbia, in 1916.
Jeannette Rankin, legislative secretary of the National Council for Prevention of War, leafs through papers as she testifies before the United States House Committee on Naval Affairs, Washington, District of Columbia.
Jeannette Pickering Rankin was an American politician and women's rights advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Montana's 1st district from 1941 to 1943. She was one of 50 House members who opposed the declaration of war on Germany in 1917.
Background
Ethnicity:
Jeannette's father was a Scottish-Canadian immigrant.
Jeannette Rankin was born on June 11, 1880, in Missoula County, Montana, United States. She was the oldest of seven children born to John Rankin, a wealthy rancher and land developer who had immigrated to Montana from Canada, and Olive (Pickering) Rankin, a schoolteacher.
Education
Since Jeannette was the eldest child of the family, she assisted her parents in daily chores and outdoor work. She also took care of her younger siblings.
Jeannette Rankin graduated from high school in 1898. As a child, she tended to find school boring and far less useful than time spent on the family's ranch. She did not do well in school and often felt inferior to her classmates. Nevertheless, she enrolled at the University of Montana where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology.
Later Rankin studied at the New York School of Philanthropy (now the Columbia University School of Social Work) from 1908 to 1909. She also attended the University of Washington.
Jeannette Rankin started her career as an elementary school teacher. However, soon she found the classroom too limiting and left this job. She also briefly worked as an apprentice seamstress. In 1908, evidently unsatisfied with this course, she left Montana to attend the New York School of Philanthropy. Later, Rankin moved to Seattle, where she did some social work. She became involved in the women's suffrage movement. Soon, she organized the New York Women's Suffrage Party and served as a lobbyist for the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
In 1911, Rankin became the first woman to speak before the Montana legislature. She actively worked to make amendments in the state constitution that would give women the right to vote. In 1916, Rankin ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. She became a Member of the United States House of Representatives from Montana's at-large district on March 4, 1917 and held this post until 1919. In 1918, Rankin decided to run for the Senate. When she failed to get the Republican nomination, she ran as the candidate of the Liberal National Party. However, she was defeated by the Democratic candidate.
Over the next twenty years, Rankin threw all of her energy into a variety of social reform efforts. In 1919, she became involved in a variety of international groups that were working to promote women's rights and world peace. During the early 1920s, Rankin served as a field secretary for the National Consumers League. In 1923, she bought a farm in Athens, Georgia, and became a part-time resident of that state, founding the Georgia Peace Society in 1928. From 1929 to 1939, she was a leading lobbyist and speaker for the National Council for the Prevention of War.
A war crisis in 1940 led Rankin to resume her political career. On January 3, 1941, she became a Member of the United States House of Representatives from Montana's 1st district. Following her victory, she was appointed to the Committee on Public Lands and the Committee on Insular Affairs. Rankin was adamant on her pacifist stand and was strongly against United States intervention in World War II. Rankin retired from active politics in 1943 and returned to social reform work, setting up a "cooperative homestead" for women in Georgia. Rankin opposed the Vietnam War and also served as an observer at the World Peace Congress in Moscow. Even in her early nineties, Rankin remained active in public life and even considered another run for Congress, but her failing health prevented her from doing so. She died in her sleep on May 18, 1973.
Jeannette Rankin organized the Equal Franchise Society and helped to establish a strong women's rights movement in Montana. As a result, in 1914, women from Montana did finally gain the right to vote. When Rankin ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, her statement of the Party's beliefs or positions on issues included national women's suffrage, child protection law, the ban on alcohol known as prohibition, and pacifism. After she became the first woman elected to the United States Congress, she intended to use her office as a forum to speak out for women's rights. However, World War I would change her plans.
The Congress summoned an extraordinary April session to take votes for participation in the war waged by Germany. A committed pacifist, Rankin did not shy away and openly voted against the war, thus becoming one of fifty people in opposition against the war. She was accused of acting "just like a woman," and there were calls for her resignation. Despite her opposition to the fighting, Rankin sold Liberty Bonds to support the war effort. She voted in favor of the draft but against the Espionage Act. During her two years in office Rankin also introduced a bill to make women independent citizens, apart from their husbands. She promoted government-sponsored aid for mothers and children and helped bring about better working conditions for employees of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
In 1923, Rankin bought a farm in Athens, Georgia, and became a part-time resident of that state, founding the Georgia Peace Society in 1928. She advocated peace on the international level through her support of the International Court of Justice, the General Disarmament Conference, and the London Naval Conference. During World War II she remained a strong pacifist, and in 1940 the citizens of Montana again elected her to the House of Representatives. Rankin was against United States intervention in World War II, even after the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, that had silenced much of the anti-war sentiments. Rankin became the only member in both the Houses of Congress to vote against the declaration of war against Japan.
During the 1960s, Rankin strongly opposed the Vietnam War and took an active role in the protest movement that gathered strength toward the end of the decade. On January 15, 1968, at the age of eighty-eight, she led a procession of 5,000 women to the United States Capitol. Rankin was one of fifteen women allowed inside to meet with lawmakers to express their opposition to United States involvement in Vietnam.
Views
Quotations:
"The peace problem is a woman's problem."
"We're half the people; we should be half the Congress."
"Never. If you're against war, you're against war regardless of what happens. It's a wrong method of trying to settle a dispute."
"If I had my life to live over, I would do it all again, but this time I would be nastier."
"Men and women are like right and left hands. It doesn't make sense not to use both."
"There can be no compromise with war. It cannot be reformed or controlled, cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense. For war is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible."
Personality
Those who knew Jeannette Rankin said that she had a charismatic and resolute personality. She had a fine intellect and an unusual perspective, and her candidacy aroused national interest. Rankin spent much of her time traveling the world. She was particularly drawn to India, where she immersed herself in the nonviolent resistance teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
As a child, Jeannette Rankin enjoyed riding horses.
Physical Characteristics:
According to those who knew Jeannette Rankin, she was tall, straight as mountain pine, and had a wealth of red hair.
Interests
Horse-riding
Politicians
Mahatma Gandhi
Connections
Jeannette Rankin was never married.
Father:
John Rankin
Mother:
Olive (Pickering) Rankin
Sister:
Philena M. Rankin
Sister:
Harriet Sedman
Sister:
Mary Frances Bragg
Sister:
Grace Evelyn Rankin
Sister:
Edna McKinnon
Brother:
Wellington Duncan Rankin
Friend:
Katherine Anthony
References
Jeannette Rankin: Bright Star in the Big Sky
The first woman ever elected to the United States Congress, Jeannette Rankin represented Montana for two terms in the United States House of Representatives. A leading advocate for both woman suffrage and world peace, she was instrumental in securing the right of Montana women to vote, five years before the right was granted nationally. As the sole female member of the United States Congress in 1919, Jeanette was the only woman to vote for national suffrage. This biography reveals Jeannette Rankin's life and personal story, exposing her many courageous and remarkable accomplishments.
2001
Jeannette Rankin, America's Conscience
Social worker, suffragist, the first woman elected to the United States Congress, and a lifelong peace activist, Jeannette Rankin is often remembered as the woman who voted "No" to United States involvement in both world wars. Rankin's determined voice for change shines in this biography, written by her friend, Norma Smith.