Jeanette Rankin

Jeannette Rankin: 1880-1973

A politician and women’s rights advocate, Jeannette Rankin successfully fought for a woman's right to vote in Washington State and Montana and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from her home state of Montana in 1916. The first woman to elected to the U.S. Congress, during her two separate terms Rankin helped pass the 19th Amendment and was the only Congressperson to vote against both WWI and WWII. Rankin was one of a few suffragists ever elected to Congress. She introduced legislation into Congressional that served as a springboard for getting the 19th amendment passed, making it legal for women across the United States to vote in political elections. The state of Montana granted women the right to vote six years prior–in 1914– to it becoming federal law August 26, 1920.

Rankin quote: "Men and women are like right and left hands; it doesn't make sense not to use both.”