Jeannette Rankin, First Woman Elected to Congress, Casts Only Vote Against U.S. Entry into WWW II
Jeannette Rankin, Republican member of the House of Representatives, on this day cast only vote against U.S. entry into World War II.
Rankin was a lifelong suffragist and pacifist, who became the first woman elected to Congress (including both the Senate and the House) in November 1916. On April 6, 2017 she voted against U.S. entry into World War I. Because to the patriotic fever and repression that swept the country during the war, she was not re-elected in 1918.
She was re-elected to the House in 1940, and when she voted against a Declaration of War on this day, the day after Pearl Harbor. As a result, she became the only person to vote against U.S. entry into both world wars.
Before being elected to Congress in 1916, he was an active suffragist, working with the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1910 she became the first woman ever to address the Montana legislature, arguing in support of granting women the right to vote.
Rankin on April 6, 1917: “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war.”
Rankin on December 8, 1942: “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.”
Learn more: James J. Lopach and Jean A. Luckowski, Jeannette Rankin: A Political Woman (2005)
See the report on the number of women in Congress, for each session 1917-2014: http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid=%270E%2C*PLS%3D%22%40%20%20%0A
Learn more about Rankin at the National Women’s History Museum: https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/jeanette-rankin/