"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."

 

--Jeannette Rankin
Jeannette Rankin was raised in MIssoula, Montana. She attended public schools, and obtained a degree in biology from the University of Montana in 1902. She tried both teaching and serving as a social worker in an orphanage before enrolling at the University of Washington. There she became involved in the state women's suffrage association. Some historians suggest that her social work revealed the appalling conditons of the poor, and that Rankin felt that women needed a voice in making new laws that would help others.
Rankin's efforts led to success as several Western states granted the vote to women, including Washington and her home state of Montana, by 1914.
But women still did not have the vote nationally. Her work as the legislative secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association included speeches and protests in Washington, DC, to get the vote for women.
In 1916, Rankin decided to run for Congress on the progressive Republican platform, which included woman suffrage, child protection, and better labor laws. This was at a time when big business and government were very close together, and social legislation was often passed only after bitter debate. She became the first female member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Having won the election as a member of the House, Rankin's first vote was on the issue of whether to enter the Great War. In April, the Senate had passed a bill favoring entrance into the war. Rankin was a known pacifist. When she had been elected the year before, most Americans were isolationist. The environment had since changed. She passed on the first roll call, but on the second call she said, "I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote no." She was one of 56 members who voted against entering the war.

In the wave of anti-Rankin sentiment which followed, she issued a statement:

"I knew that we were asked to vote for a commercial war, that none of the idealistic hopes would be carried out, and I was aware of the falseness of much of the propaganda. It was easy to stand against the pressure of the militarists, but very difficult to go against the friends and dear ones who felt that I was making a needless sacrifice by voting against the war, since my vote would not be a decisive one.... I said I would listen to those who wanted war and would not vote until the last opportunity and if I could see any reason for going to war I would change it."
As a member of Congress, Rankin worked to make a better world for workers, children, and others left out by the system. She continued to fight for peace, joining international peace efforts like the Zurich Congress, which was made up of women from all the warring countries. At home she sold Liberty Bonds, supported the draft, but voted against the Espionage Act that limited freedom of speech. She also created legislation on separate citizenship for women, where before citizenship had been dependent on the status of the husband. She also worked on federally-supported programs for pre-natal health care and child-care education.

Rankin was not re-elected in 1918, but went on to work for national and international women's rights. The following year, suffrage was granted to American women. Ranking continued to work in Washington as a lobbyist for groups like the Women's Peace Union and the National Council for the Prevention of War. She also founded the Georgia Peace Society, establishing a home in Athens, Georgia.

 

In 1929, in an age where many were questioning the role of war and the results of World War I, she wrote:
"There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be
disciplined into decency or codified into common sense; for war is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible."

In 1934, the possibility of Rankin being appointed to the new "Department of Peace" at Brenau Collge cause another controversy. She was opposed by editors like W.T. Anderson of the Macon Telegraph, who branded hee a communist. Others, like Clark Howell of the Atlanta Constitution, praised her and said that someday women would be consulted before "'War Lords' tear their sons from their bosoms".

In 1940, she ran again for Congress on an anti-war platform and won. Europe was at war, and war threatened in the Pacific. She made efforts to convince President Roosevelt to maintain diplomatic relations with Japan.
Congress convened to declare war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. This time Rankin was the only member to vote "no". A furor resulted, and she was called names like "traitor Nazi", but she stuck to her principles. She had to shout over the protest of the House Speaker: "As a woman, I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else." She even proposed in Congress that war supporters, including the President, should receive the $30 a month and the same food rations as the soldiers they were sending overseas. A police escort was required to escort her safely from the Capitol.
   
From the end of World War II until the beginning of the Vietnam War in 1965, Rankin studied the non-violent techniques of Mohandes Gandhi in India. She continued to campaign for reform, and opened a woman's cooperative community in Georgia. In 1962, she visited the Soviet Union on a peace tour. She returned to politics during the Vietnam War, which she adamently opposed. In 1967, she presentedto Congress a petition signed by 5,000 women against the war.
The following year, in 1968, she led a march against the war. About 5,000 people marched in the Women's Strike for Peace, in what was called the "Jeannette Rankin Brigade". .
She was 88 years old, and had become a symbol and guiding force for the young generation of pacifists around the country.
She was prepared to run for office again, but her health failed and she died in 1973. She left $16,000 to be used to assist "mature unemployed women workers", a golad carried on by The Jeannette Rankin Foundation, which helps helping mature women pursue their educational and training goals.
Today, Rocky Mountain College in Montana has a "Jeannette Rankin Peace Award". Among the many heirs to Jeannette Rankin is Barbara Lee of California, the Representative who cast the only vote again President Bush's "War on Terrorism" in 2001. In 1985, the state of Montana contributed this statue of Jeannette Rankin, which stands in the U.S. Capitol. It is a tribute to a woman who stood on her principles against much opposition, a woman who fought for peace when others found it easier to go to war.