The First Woman

The Overlook

By Tom Clavin

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          Once again, the U.S. missed an opportunity to elect a woman president. But it was 108 years ago this week that that the first woman was elected to Congress.

Jeannette Rankin was born on June 11, 1880, in Montana, nine years before it became a state. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father owned a mill. Her brother later became a Montana Supreme Court justice and a sister became the first Montana-born woman to pass the bar exam in Montana and was an early social activist for access to birth control.

Rankin studied at the University of Montana, graduating in 1902 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Five years later, she moved to San Francisco to take a job in social work, a new and developing field. Confident that she had found her calling, Rankin moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington and became involved in the women’s suffrage movement. In November 1910, Washington voters approved an amendment to their state constitution to permanently enfranchise women, the fifth state to do so. Relocating to New York, Rankin became one of the organizers of the New York Woman Suffrage Party, which joined with other suffrage organizations to promote a similar suffrage bill in that state's legislature.

Rankin returned to Montana and rose through the ranks of suffrage organizations, becoming the president of the Montana Women's Suffrage Association. In February 1911, she became the first woman to speak before the Montana legislature, arguing in support of enfranchisement for women in her home state. In November 1914, Montana became the seventh state to grant women unrestricted voting rights.

In Rankin's campaign for one of Montana's two seats in the congressional election of 1916, she traveled long distances to reach the state's widely scattered population. She rallied support at train stations, street corners, potluck suppers on ranches, and remote one-room schoolhouses. She ran as a progressive, emphasizing her support of suffrage, social welfare, and Prohibition. In the Republican primary, Rankin received the most votes of the eight Republican candidates. In the at-large general election on November 7, the top two vote-getters won the seats. Rankin finished second in the voting to become the first woman elected to Congress. During her victory speech, she said, "I am deeply conscious of the responsibility resting upon me.” Her election generated considerable nationwide interest, including several marriage proposals.

Congress was called into an extraordinary April 1917 session in response to Germany's declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare on all Atlantic shipping. President Woodrow Wilson addressed a joint session, asking Congress to "make the world safe for democracy" by declaring war on Germany. After intense debate, the war resolution came to a vote in the House and Rankin cast one of 50 votes in opposition. Years later, she would say, "I felt the first time the first woman had a chance to say no to war, she should say it." Although 49 male Representatives and six Senators also voted against the declaration, Rankin was singled out for criticism.

Undaunted, Rankin used her office to push for better working conditions for laborers and she continued to lead the movement for unrestricted universal enfranchisement. She was instrumental in the creation of the Committee on Woman Suffrage. In January 1918, the committee delivered its report to Congress and Rankin opened congressional debate on a constitutional amendment granting universal suffrage to women. The resolution passed in the House but was defeated by the Senate. The following year the same resolution passed both chambers. After ratification by three-fourths of the states, it became the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1918, Rankin decided to run for the U.S. Senate. She finished third in the election. After leaving Congress, Rankin worked as a field secretary for the National Consumers League and as a lobbyist for various pacifist organizations. She argued for the passage of a constitutional amendment banning child labor and supported the first federal social welfare program created explicitly for women and children.

 In 1924, Rankin bought a small farm in Georgia. She lived a simple life there without electricity or plumbing, though she also maintained a residence in Montana. Rankin made frequent speeches around the country on behalf of the Women's Peace Union and the National Council for the Prevention of War. In 1928 she founded the Georgia Peace Society. It was no surprise that in 1937, Rankin opposed President Franklin Roosevelt’s proposals to intervene on the side of the British against Germany and its allies, arguing that both sides wished to avoid a second European war and would pursue a diplomatic solution. When it became clear that her lobbying efforts were largely ineffective, Rankin declared her intention to regain her seat in the House of Representatives.

She began her campaign for Congress in 1939 with a tour of 52 of the First Congressional District's 56 high schools to reestablish her ties to the region after years of spending much of her time in Georgia. In the 1940 race, Rankin—now 60 years old—defeated the incumbent in the July primary and former Representative Jerry O’Connell in the general election.

While members of Congress and their constituents had been debating the question of U.S. intervention in World War II for months, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized the country and silenced virtually all opposition. On December 8, 1941, Rankin was the only member of either chamber of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan. Hisses could be heard in the gallery as she cast her vote. Several colleagues asked her to change it to make the resolution unanimous -- or at very least, to abstain -- but she said, "As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else."

After the vote, a crowd of reporters pursued Rankin into a cloakroom. There, she was forced to take refuge in a phone booth until Capitol Police arrived to escort her to her office, where she was inundated with angry telegrams and phone calls. One cable, from her brother, read, "Montana is 100 percent against you.” A photo of Rankin sequestered in the phone booth, calling for assistance, appeared the following day in newspapers across the country.

She was not re-elected. Over the next 20 years she traveled the world, frequently visiting India, where she studied the pacifist teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. In the 1960s and 1970s a new generation of pacifists, feminists, and civil rights advocates found inspiration in Rankin and embraced her efforts in ways that her own generation had not. She mobilized again in response to the Vietnam War. In January 1968, the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, a coalition of women's peace groups, organized an anti-war march in Washington, D.C.—the largest march by women since 1913’s Women’s Suffrage Parade. Rankin led 5000 participants to the steps of the Capitol Building where they presented a peace petition to Congress.

In 1972, Rankin considered mounting a third House campaign to gain a wider audience for her opposition to the Vietnam War. However, longstanding throat and heart ailments forced her to abandon that final project. She died on May 18, 1973 – three weeks before her 93^rd birthday -- in Carmel, California. She bequeathed her estate to help "mature, unemployed women workers.” Her Montana residence, known as the Rankin Ranch, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

There has not (yet) been a feature film about Jeannette Rankin, but you can find a filmed play about her life titled A Single Women that was directed and produced by Kamala – yes, Kamala -- Lopez, narrated by Martin Sheen, and featuring music by Joni Mitchell.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 25 books. His latest book, Bandit Heaven, was published last month by St. Martin’s Press. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to purchase a copy.