Jeannette Rankin

Jeanette Rankin

Matzene, Chicago via Wikimedia [public domain]

Jeannette Rankin is my hero. She is my hero because she did wonderful things for women's rights in America forever. She was the first woman to be a member of the U.S. Congress. Jeannette was born on June 11th, 1880 in a town near Missoula, Montana. She graduated from the University of Montana in 1902, which was amazing for a woman of that era.

Rankin's Republican Ticket

Thomas Cizauskas via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 [public domain]

Jeannette was a social worker in Seattle, Washington, but she got caught up in the rise of sentiment for women suffrage and campaigned effectively for the next five years in California, Washington, and Montana. In 1914 she became legislative secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and in that same year she led a successful campaign for woen's suffrage in her native Montana.

In 1916 she was elected into the U.S. House of Representatives, thus being the first woman elected into U.S. Congress. She introduced the first bill that would have allowed women's citizenship independent of their husbands, and also supported government-sponsored health care in maternity and infancy.

But, because she was one of the 49 members to vote against war in Germany, she lost her spot in the House of Representatives, and later returned to her social work.

In 1940 Rankin was voted back in to the House. She was the only member of the legislative party to vote against declaring war on Japan after the bombings of Pearl Harbor, which ultimately terminated her political career. She was active in the National Consumers League, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, along with other reform groups. And lastly on January 15, 1968, at the age of 87, she led 5,000 women, calling themselves the "Jeannette Rankin Brigade" to the foot of Capitol Hill to demonstrate opposition to the hostilities in Indochina.

On May 18th, 1973 Jeannette Rankin died. Without Jeannette Rankin I would not be who I am today. Women would not have the same rights, and as a 17-year-old girl, I wouldn't have the same rights or life as I do right now. Jeannette Rankin changed how the world thinks about women, and for that she will always be remembered.