Deanna

Research report on Jeannette Rankin    

March 26, 2001

Jeannette Rankin: Feminist and Pacifist

        When people think of the women’s rights movement, they usually remember the 1960’s and 1970’s when feminists like Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda were taking stands on women’s issues.  Some of these issues included equal pay for women and speaking out against the Vietnam War.  But many decades before that, a Montana woman[WSD1]  named Jeannette Rankin was making her voice known, not only on women’s suffrage, but also on issues of war and peace.  As the first woman ever in the U.S. Congress, Rankin was faced with decisions that would have been difficult for women of any era.  She risked her career when she voted against both World War I and World War II.  She lived long enough to protest the war in Vietnam, too.  Above all, Rankin stood for peace (Giles, 9-13 & Delespinasse).

            To fully understand Jeannette Rankin’s life, it is important to understand not only what she stood for, but also where she came from.  Her story started [WSD2] when a family of Scottish immigrants settled on a farm in Ontario Canada in the 19^th century.  One of the nine children in the family was a man named John Rankin.  While growing up he had very little schooling, but learned the [WSD3] carpenter’s trade before he was 20 years old (Josephson, 6).

            In 1869, he and his brother, Duncan Rankin were lured to the Montana territory by [WSD4] [WSD5] stories they had heard about the gold strikes.  They decided they would take a chance to find some fortune.  They found no gold, but John Rankin found a home to live in for a while.

            He settled as a contractor and builder in the small village of Missoula. He was very successful there and built the first bridge to span the Clark Fork River.  He also built churches, shops and dwellings for the incoming settlers.  Among the many of these settlers was Olive Pickering, a woman from New Hampshire.  It was soon after that the two met and fell in love.  They were married in 1879 and had their first child the next year on June 11, 1880 (Josephson, 6-8).

            The child’s name was Jeannette Rankin.  She would be the first of seven children.  After her came Philena (who died at an early age,) then Hariet, Wellington, Mary, Grace, and Edna.  While growing up they enjoyed stories about the Old West, [WSD6] told by their father.  Jeannette played a big part with raising her siblings, so it may have been said that she had children but she never married.  She enjoyed spending time on the family’s ranch and it was there she did her “thinking.”  She loved to learn things, and to her, there was no difference between men’s work and women’s work.

            At the age of 22, Jeannette Rankin graduated from the University of Montana.  She went to many schools during her life.  She worked a few years until entering the New York School of Philanthropy.  Philanthropy is the desire to help human kind.  Later, attending the University of Washington, she started putting her knowledge to work. 

            Rankin became the legislative secretary of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association.  Her first act was to introduce a constitutional suffrage amendment into the House of Representatives.  Suffrage is the right or privilege to vote.  It is a term not used often today, because we take voting for granted.  Rankin campaigned for the universal suffrage, prohibition, child welfare reform, an end to child labor, and staying out of war (Davis).

            By now women across the country had gotten involved in the suffrage movement.  Rankin and other women held speeches in union halls in Ohio.  They carried posters in the towns and villages of Wisconsin.  Women who just wanted to be treated as equals and have the right to vote knew her as a leader across the country [WSD7] (“Jeannette Rankin,” internet).

            On March 4, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson was sworn into office.  The suffragists planned to greet him in Washington D.C. with a huge parade through the whole city.  They wanted to inform him that the women’s voting right should be one of his most important goals.  According to Judy Rachel Block, the author of The First Woman in Congress: Jeannette Rankin, Rankin was sure that the day would be their greatest, but her dream was about to be shattered (Block, 28 & 30-32).  Suddenly a rude man threw a burning cigar stub at Rankin’s head.  Some men shouted, “Get back in the kitchen where you belong!”  Others hollered, “No vote for women!”  They turned against the women, pushed them into the streets and blocked their parade.  The police did nothing to stop the men.  One officer even yelled, “If my wife were where you are, I’d break her head!” (Josephson-38).

            Now she was determined to get what all women deserved.  She returned to Montana and formed more women’s voting groups.  She organized suffrage campaigns in Delaware, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, South Dakota, and Nebraska.  She arranged to have booths set up to give people free literature, posters, and booklets with informative suffrage questions and answers.  She traveled over 1,300 miles giving at least one speech a day.  Everyone admired her determination.  Quoted in the “Women’s Journal- The Suffrage Weekly,” one voter remarked: “If she could talk personally to every voter in the state, there would be no doubt of suffrage carrying, so great is her charm, so convincing her arguments.”

            By now it was 1913 and there were only two votes against the women’s voting amendment in Montana.  It was in the hands of the Montana voters, who were all men.  Rankin convinced them that the women’s vote would help build the state and give it more power.  On the voting day, the men of Montana gave women the vote.  She and her many other followers had finally won their long struggle (Block, 32-35).

            When that was over and done with, she began to concentrate on other things that interested her.  She was almost the most famous person in Montana, next to the governor.  She wanted to keep helping the people of Montana and was scheming ways how to do that.  Her brother Wellington had a perfect idea.  She was very surprised when she asked him what she should do with her life and he answered, “You are about the best known name and face in the state.  I know it’s never been done by a woman, but maybe the time has come to try it.  Run for the U.S. Congress!  Run, and I bet you’ll win.”  And she instantly accepted the idea (Block, 34-35).

            In 1916 Rankin started campaigning for the congressional race.  She talked to the people of Missoula about her decision.  “I would like to make an announcement, I am entering the race for the U.S. Congress!”

            She was now 36 years old.  She knew what mattered to Montana and it’s people.  She promised that if the people elected her she would “make their ideals and equal rights the law of the land.”  (Block, 35)

            Rankin began to speak to copper miners, lumberjacks, bank clerks, and mothers.  She told them things she stood for and why she would make a great congresswoman.  She also explained to them why she deserved the Congressional seat for Montana.  She stood very strongly for staying out of war.  “I stand for peace,” she said to a roomful of copper miners.  “If you elect me as your congresswoman, I promise to do everything to keep the Unites States out of war.” Montanans were terrified of the war that was going on in Europe and they didn’t want to be a part of it.  She also wanted laws that would protect children’s rights, and would help to pass a national law that gave all women the right to vote. 

            On November 16, 1916, Election Day, she woke up very excited because not only was it Election Day, but it was the day that the women in Montana would vote for the first time.  When the votes came in, she won by over 7,000 votes (Davis & Josephson, 44).

            Being the first women in Congress, she was often ridiculed.  All of the papers and magazines were filled with stories, cartoons and articles about Rankin.  Most were far from the truth and one even mocked her right to her seat in Congress.  A man named Christopher Morley went so far as to publish a poem on the subject of “A Woman In Congress.”  It stated: “Her maiden speeches will be known for charm and grace of manner, but who on earth will chaperone the member from Montana?”

            But she was headed to Washington D.C. and no one could stop her now.  When she got there, things were starting to turn for the worse.  Everyone was talking about the call to war.  America was in danger of the German submarines that had sunk many of our ships with U.S. citizens on board.  It was a hard decision, but President Wilson had no other choice, he would have to declare war on Germany (Block 36-40).

            Rankin would have to make her first important vote in Congress only 4 days after she was sworn into office.  She would have to give her yes or no decision on World War I.  She knew that she would have to stand firm by the belief of her father that “war is the wrong way to solve problems.”  She believed she had to do the right thing “for herself, for Montana, and for all the women of America.”

            Everyone tried to convince her to vote yes for the war.  Even her own brother Wellington said, “Jeannette, you’ve got to vote for war!  You’ll ruin your chances to be elected again if you vote against the war.”  She would later realize that he was right, but she still believed that her vote wouldn’t have anything to do with getting elected again.  “I could never live with myself if I voted to send young men to war just to save my job”  (Block- 40).

            More and more people wanted Rankin to vote yes on the war.  Now even her friends who had earlier helped her with the women’s rights felt that people would think that women couldn’t make hard choices in Congress if she didn’t  (Block, 40-41).

            Rankin was never someone who followed the crowd, so on voting day, April 6, 1917; she stayed true to herself and cast her vote against the war.  The vote came out 82 in favor, 6 against, and 8 not voting (Josephson, 73).

            Rankin did not want to give up, even though people disliked her decision.  So she ran again with slogans like, “Win the war and make the world safe for humanity,” and, “Establish democracy at home, based on human rights as superior to property rights.”  She ran on the platform for national women’s suffrage, prohibition, federal price support for farm products and an end to speculation of grain.

            On Election Day, 1918, a violent storm came up which kept many voters at home.  Not only that, but at that time the influenza epidemic was bad, so that decreased the voting number, too (Josephson, 56).

            Many people were still very disappointed, and some even outraged with her decision on war, and her popularity suffered.  She was not re-elected into Congress, but during the time she was not in office she moved to Georgia to settle into a new home.  Between 1925 and 1929 she was active in two peace groups in hope of providing a workable program for preventing war.  The first was Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.  She agreed to go on a speaking tour similar to that of the suffrage campaign.  She spoke clearly against war, saying, “no woman can with honor ask her son to go to war unless she can say that she had done everything in her power to prevent the necessity of making such a sacrifice”  (Josephson, 119-120).

            Rankin was also active in the National Council for the Prevention of War.  She would remain with that group for the next couple years spreading the word about peace.  She had many supporters for peace in Georgia.  She said they shared her interest with the peace program in the nation.  She was happy with this, but her dream was to get her seat back in Congress (Block, 42 & Josephson, 125).

            With encouragement from her Georgia supporters, she decided to run a third time with confidence in 1939.  Her dream was fulfilled when she won back her seat, this time from Georgia.  But once again she was faced with the decision again on war as World War II was coming (Josephson, 156).

            For the second time she voted against going to war.  “As a women, I cannot go to war and I refuse to send anyone else!”  When the votes were counted that day in 1941, there were 388 votes for war and only one against.  She truly did stand alone this time.  She was now the one and only person in the history of American history to vote against both world wars.  Once again the media, her family, and closest friends mocked her, but she continued to speak out against war throughout the rest of her life.  She led the Jeannette Rankin Brigade in 1968.  It was a group of women protesters in a march against the Vietnam War (Block, 47 & “Jeannette Rankin, book”).

            On June 11, 1970, Congress honored her.  She called her reward for bravery one of the first “doves of peace.”  Sadly, Jeannette Rankin died in Carmel, California, [WSD8] on May 18, 1973 at the age of 92, but her ideals still hold true today.  We’ve learned a lot from her life and she will always be remembered.  The person who said it best was President John F. Kennedy who said, “She was one of the most fearless people in American History”  (Josephson, 47).