Women's History: Jeanette Rankin

Imagine having to make a huge choice four days after coming into your new office. Your superiors and the media at large are pressuring you one way even as your beliefs go another way. How do you vote?

Before Hilary, Nancy, or Barbara ever had to make that choice, Jeanette Rankin did. And she voted against World War I in accordance with her beliefs as a feminist and pacifist.

She was also the first woman ever elected to Congress, in 1916, before women could even vote for her. After completing college and trying out various jobs, she decided to become a social worker to help the poor and children. She was the first woman to speak for the Montana legislature and helped the women of Montana get the vote. Then, she ran for the House of Representitives.

And, formerly a media darling, she was outcasted by the press and women's suffrage groups after she cast her vote against the war, stating that "I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war." Not that she wasn't patriotic- once the US decided to go to war, she sold Liberty Bonds for the home front effort. And when the Republicans refused to nominate her at the end of her term, she ran as an independant.

When she didn't win, Jeanette didn't go home like a sore loser. She stayed in Washington D.C. as a lobbyist, pushing for legislation to help infant mortality and new mothers, women workers, and children, and played a major role in the passing of the 19th Amendment.

When it seemed that America was destined for war again, Jeanette ran for office again and won. She was the only person to vote against entering World War II and did so on the feminist principle that as a woman, she would not be able to serve her country in the military. She said, "As a woman, I can't go to war and I refuse to send anyone else. I vote 'NO'."

After her second term, she continued her pro-woman, pro-peace stance, believing in Ghandi's non-violent principles and a huge supporter of Martin Luther King Jr. She began groups like the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and worked for the ACLU. Most famously, Jeanette led 5,000 women in a march on the Capitol to voice their opposition to the Vietnam War at age 87.

They called themselves "The Jeanette Rankin Brigade."