
Jeannette Rankin, American Politician #4

by Science Source
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Jeannette Rankin, American Politician #4
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Science Source
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Photograph - Photograph
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Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 - May 18, 1973) was an American politician, women's rights advocate, and the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. She was elected to the House of Representatives from Montana in 1916, and again in 1940. Each of Rankin's Congressional terms coincided with initiation of U.S. military intervention in each of the two world wars. A lifelong pacifist and a supporter of non-interventionism, she was one of 50 House members, along with six Senators, who opposed the war declaration of 1917, and the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. A member of the Republican Party during the Progressive Era, Rankin was also instrumental in initiating the legislation that eventually became the 19th Amendment, granting unrestricted voting rights to women. She championed the causes of women's rights and civil rights throughout a career that spanned more than six decades. Rankin traveled the world, frequently visiting India, where she studied the pacifist teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. In the 1960s and 1970s a new generation of pacifists, feminists, and civil rights advocates found inspiration in Rankin, and embraced her efforts in ways that her own generation had not. She never married and died in 1973 at the age of 92. Photo by Matzene, 1917.
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April 15th, 2019
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