JUNE 11
JEANNETTE RANKIN
Jeannette Rankin earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Montana. She then attended Columbia University in New York to study social work, and shortly after moving to Seattle, WA, to become a social worker, Rankin became involved in Women's Suffrage. She led a successful suffrage campaign in her home state, and in 1914, women of Montana gained the right to vote - six years before women had the right to vote across the nation (typo on the written page: it reads four years).
In 1916, Jeannette Rankin ran for Congress in Montana, and won one of two state-wide seats. This made her the first woman elected to serve in either the United States House or Senate. Just months after being sworn into her Congressional role, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, and thus enter WWI. Rankin was one of only 50 members to vote against the measure. Before her term was up, she introduced legislation for women to have the right to vote nationwide. This would eventually become the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Rankin was the only woman to be able to vote for the right for women to vote!
As tensions in the world increased, and another world war appeared eminent, Rankin again ran for a Congressional seat in 1940, and won. Within the first year of this term, Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt went to Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Japan, which would mean entering WWII. Rankin was the only member of the House or the Senate to vote no. She was asked to change her vote so that it could be unanimous, but Rankin refused. She said, "As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else." This vote cost her re-election, but she stood by her decision.
Rankin remained politically active her whole life. She traveled the world and visited India many times to study under Mahatma Gandhi. Rankin remained outspoken against wars, and even organized and led a protest march of 5,000 women in Washington, DC in 1968 during the Vietnam War. She died on May 18, 1973 at the age of 92.