Who Was Jeannette Rankin?

When you look at Congress today, especially the House of Representatives, you see a sea of female faces, old, young, black, brown, white, Native American and Asian.  It seems like it's taken forever to get strong female representation in Congress.  In fact, it has been just about 100 years since Jeannette Ranking became the first woman to hold federal office.

Ranking lived from 1880-1973, and was known as both a politician and women's rights advocate.  She became the first woman in the House of Representatives in 1916.  She served in the same capacity in 1940, representing Montana.  She is still the only woman elected to congress from Monatana.

Jeannette Rankin was a lifelong pacifist and supporter of non interventionism.  She opposed the U.S. declaration of war in 1916, and she was the only member of congress to vote against declaring war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  She was a member of the Republican party during the Progressive  Era, and was instrumental in initiating legislation that eventually became the 19th Amendment.   Where did that Republican Party go?  Truly a woman who did much for women's rights, yet somehow I just recently learned about her, and I thought you'd like to know  of her too.