In 1916 , four eld before the Constitution recognized her right to vote , Jeannette Rankin was elect to Congress . While cleaning lady had not attain vote across the U.S. yet , there were no laws debar them from holding office in the Capitol . So Rankin , with her belief that “ man and cleaning lady are like rightfulness and forget hands ; it does n’t make sense not to use both , ” set out to fight for change for women from within the governance .
Rankin was sworn in as a representative from Montana in April 1917 .
She had facilitate secure women the right to vote in her abode nation three year earlier and had think to bring the fight to the rest of the land early in her terminus . The 65th Congress would not have a normal session that yr , though , and not only would Rankin ’s plans be jump , but another of her convictions – her anti - war sentiment – would be test and become the focal degree of her term .
Just Say No
World War I was get to in Europe , and just before Congress convened that spring , Germany had declared unrestricted submarine warfare on all Atlantic shipping . Woodrow Wilson had request Congress adjudge war against Germany , but Americans and their representatives were still divided on whether the U.S. should go in the battle . The authorities was wary of foreign web , but with the news of submarine war on American interest , many climate on Capitol Hill shifted rapidly .
Rankin ’s had not . She ’d campaigned on a disarmer political program and was not about to convert her mind on the matter . Just a month into her terminus , the House voted on a solution to enter the warfare . When the whorl call first came on the suffrage , Rankin remained silent . Representative Joe Cannon of Illinois come on her on the floor afterward and advised her , “ Little woman , you could not afford not to vote . You represent the womanhood of the land in the American Congress . ”
On the second roll call , she voted “ no ” and entered a gossip with her vote , stating : “ I want to stand by my country , but I can not vote for war . ” Forty - nine others vote with her , but the state of war was on , and Rankin took unfavorable judgment from warfare war hawk across the nation for the duration of the conflict . Even suffrage mathematical group send packing their support of her , though they would later come out against the war .
The packaging and the unpopularity of her beliefs did not seem to faze Rankin . She got right to insure suffrage for women , unfold the congressional debate on the Susan B. Anthony Amendment later that year . Just three years later , the nineteenth Amendment was ratified and gave women nationwide the right to vote . Rankin , ironically , did not even get to vote on the amendment ; she was no longer in Congress at the metre . By the close , the public had overwhelmingly come to confirm the war , and when Rankin ’s term was over the yr before , her pacificism cost her both reelection to the House and a Senate campaign . The amendment she ’d worked so heavily on was voted on — and passed — by an all - male Congress .
Out of Office
Rankin work in the individual sphere for a few years and returned to Congress in 1939 . This time , she was joined by five other women in the House and two in the Senate . Two class afterwards , on a day that would live in infamy , Japan attack Pearl Harbor . The morning after , President Franklin Roosevelt spoke before a Joint Session of Congress and called for a formal declaration of war on Japan . The Senate hold in less than an hr and the House leader felt pressure to follow suit . During the vote , Rankin commented , “ as a adult female I ca n’t go to state of war , and I decline to send anyone else . ” The final vote was 388 - 1 , with Rankin as the sole dissenter .
Rankin ’s public image suffered and she was denounced by both the press and other politico . She knew her passivism would , as it had decades before , cost her re - election . When her terminus was up , she did n’t even break away .
Even after her political career end , Ranking continue to further the crusade of pacifism . In the late 1960s , she protested the Vietnam War at marches in Washington . She die in the spring of 1973 , just two years before Saigon fall and the US pull out of Vietnam .
