Great Women in History
by Letia Gathright
This week’s great woman in history is….
Jeannette Rankin - (June 11, 1880 - May 18, 1973)
Here are some highlights in Rankin’s life:
- She was the first American woman elected to Congress on November 6, 1916.
- She was the oldest of eleven children.
- Rankin attended Montana State University at Missoula and graduated in 1902 with a bachelor of science degree in biology.
- She was a social worker in Spokane, Washington, in a children’s home.
- She became involved in the woman suffrage movement in 1910.
- Rankin became the first woman to speak before the Montana legislature.
- She organized and spoke for the Equal Franchise Society.
- She went to work for the New York Woman Suffrage Party and in 1912 she became the field secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
- Rankin was among the thousands of suffragists at the 1913 suffrage march in Washington, D.C., before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson.
- Only four days after taking office, Jeannette Rankin made history in yet another way: she voted against U.S. entry into World War I.
- She was active in the antiwar movement, often invited to speak or honored by the young antiwar activists and feminists.
For more information: Women’s History, About.com
women, history, politics, Jeannette Rankin, legislature, congress
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