born June 11, 1880, near Missoula, Mont., U.S.
died May 18, 1973, Carmel, Calif.
U.S. reformer, first woman member of the U.S. Congress (1917–19, 1941–43).
She was a social worker and an active member of the woman suffrage movement. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916, she introduced the first bill to give women the vote. A pacifist, she voted against declaring war on Germany (1917). After losing her bid for a U.S. Senate seat (1918), she returned to social work. In 1940 she was again elected to the House, where she became the only legislator to vote against the declaration of war on Japan. Declining to seek reelection, she continued to lecture on social reform. In 1968, at age 87, she led 5,000 women, the "Jeannette Rankin Brigade," in protest of the Vietnam War.
Jeannette Rankin, 1918.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.