Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. She voted against U.S. entry into both World Wars, making her the only member of Congress to vote no to declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Rankin was a lifelong pacifist and advocate for women's rights, working for suffrage and serving as a lobbyist for international women's peace organizations after leaving Congress. She remained politically active into her 90s, leading anti-Vietnam War protests.

1. Jeanette RankinJeanette Rankin
“You take people as far as they will go,
not as far as you would like them to go.”

2. Early LifeEarly Life
Jeanette Rankin was one of seven
children (she had five sisters and a
brother). Rankin’s father and mother
was John and Olive Rankin. Her
father was a successful rancher and
businessman from Ontario, Canada
and her mother was a schoolteacher.
Rankin was born in Missoula,
Montana.

3. 1902-19031902-1903
Jeannette Rankin was encouraged by
her parents to attend college. She
earned a B.S. degree in biology from
the University of Montana. Rankin
then followed in her mother’s
footsteps and became a teacher. But
was short lived, she stopped after a
year of teaching in a rural school,
and then left a second teaching
position because she failed the state
certification exam. She then made a
goal to leave Montana at the first
opportunity.

4. 19041904
John Rankin dies of Rocky
Mountain tick fever. Household
responsibilities including raising her
five younger sisters were turned
over to Jeanette. She also became an
apprentice to a milliner and studied
furniture making by correspondence
course.

5. 1908- 19091908- 1909
Jeanette Rankin moved to New
York and completed a master’s
degree program in social work at
the New York School of
Philanthropy. It is there that she
develops her ideology. Rankin
adopts a new social theory, one that
says a better society could be
achieved through systematic
investigation and fair economic
policies. She believed that parenting
and all service to society could be
and should be standardized. Rankin
also started to speak out about what
women could contribute to society
as well.

6. 1909 - 19101909 - 1910
Jeanette Rankin works as a social
worker in Missoula. She became
frustrated with social work and
volunteered with the Washington
campaign for women suffrage.
Rankin desired to become a more
effective campaigner, so she studied
economics, sociology, and public
speaking at the University of
Washington.

7. 1910 - 19161910 - 1916
Works for women's suffrage. Learns
how to organize at the grass roots.
Directs Montana suffrage campaign.
Montana grants women the right to
vote.
Becomes a member of Heterodoxy. A
group interested in birth control,
socialism, communism, and
prohibition.
As field secretary for the National
American Woman Suffrage
Association, she organizes and lobbies
in eleven other states, becoming one of
the ‘stars” of the national suffrage
movement.

8. 1916 - 19171916 - 1917
Runs successfully for the U.S. house of
Representatives. She received 6,354 more
votes than the third-place candidate.
Rankin was the first woman to be elected
to congress and any national legislative
body.
Votes against U.S. entering WWI.
Rankin believed that it was vitally
important as the first woman to take a
stand. She received immense pressure
from woman to vote for the war in fear
that a vote against it would hurt the
suffrage movement.
Successful in getting working conditions
improved, including instituting an eight
hour day. Jeannette Rankin makes her first
speech as a member of Congress

9. 19181918
Runs unsuccessfully for
the U.S. Senate.
Rankin did not have the
support of the national
suffrage leaders.
Delegation of officers of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association

10. 19191919
Leaves Congress and
travels as a Women’s Peace
Party (WPP) delegate to
the Women’s International
conference for Permanent
Peace.
Influenced by Jane
Addams, a pacifist,
strongly believing that war
is ineffective in solving
social problems.
Jane Addams

11. 1920 - 19251920 - 1925
WPP became Women’s International
League (WIL), Rankin serves on the
executive board as a paid lobbyist.
Their agenda included hunger relief
and releasing war and political
prisoners.
Leaves WIL because she was not
allowed to do grass roots organizing.
19th Amendment is ratified, all U.S.
women gain right to vote.
A founding member of the ACLU.
Moves to rural Georgia. Organized
Georgia Peace Society.

12. 1926 - 19391926 - 1939
Continues to fight for
radical policies like high
taxes on war profits and
pushed for an amendment
to outlaw war.
Frustrated by the
bureaucracy of peace
organizations, Rankin
returns to Montana with
the intent to fight for peace
as a member of Congress.

13. 19401940
Jeanette Rankin is elected
as a Republican to the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Overcame perception of
being a political has-been
with the help of her
wealthy brother and his
political connections.

14. 1941 - 19431941 - 1943
Cast the single vote against the
resolution to declare war on Japan.
Responses to Rankin’s vote spanned
from gratitude for taking a stand, to
claiming she was setting women back.
Became associated with the America
First Committee, a isolationist
organization. This group was known
for it fascism and anti-Semitism.
Does not run for re-election because
of an agreement she made and she
could not get her brother to back her.

15. 1944 - 19671944 - 1967
Rankin, supported by her
brother, travels internationally.
When her brother passes away,
he leaves her with a sizable
bequest. Visits India to study
Gandhi's peaceful protest.
Jeanette attempts to create a
communal home for elderly
women which failed to happen.
Rankin speaks out against the
Vietnam War.
Mahatma Gandhi

16. 1968 - 19721968 - 1972
Leads the Jeanette Rankin
Brigade war protest in
Washington, D.C.
Speaks out against the
Electoral College,
advocating for preferential
elections.
National Organization of
Women (NOW) honors
Rankin as “the world’s
outstanding living
feminist.”

17. 19731973
Purchases a retirement
condominium in Carmel,
California.
Spent her last days
watching the Watergate
hearings on television.
Dies May 18 at age 92. Her
estate is valued at
$162,000 ($720,000 today).

18. LegacyLegacy
The Jeannette Rankin Foundation
Jeannette Rankin Women's Scholarship Fund
raises funds and awards scholarships
annually to low-income women thirty five
years of age and older who are in an
undergraduate or vocational training
program and have a vision of how their
education will benefit themselves, their
families and their communities.

19. JeanetteJeanette
RankinRankin
June 11, 1880 - May 18, 1973