Honestly, if you ask most people who the first woman in Congress was, they’ll probably guess it happened sometime after 1920. It makes sense, right? The 19th Amendment—the one that finally gave women the right to vote—wasn’t ratified until then. But history has a funny way of being messier than the textbooks let on.
The truth is, Jeannette Rankin was sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives in 1917. That’s four years before she technically had a constitutional right to vote in a federal election nationwide. She didn't just walk into the Capitol; she kicked the door down.
Rankin was a Republican from Montana. She was a powerhouse. A pacifist. A suffragist. And, quite frankly, someone who didn't give a damn about political optics if it meant betraying her soul.
The Montana Loophole
How did she get elected before women could even vote? It’s a bit of a "Western" story. Back then, states had the power to decide who could vote in their own neck of the woods. Montana had already granted women the right to vote in 1914. Rankin had been a massive part of that fight, traveling the state on horseback and speaking to miners and ranchers.
When she ran for one of Montana’s two at-large seats in 1916, she wasn't just some novelty act. She was a seasoned organizer. She ran on a platform of social welfare, better working conditions for children, and—most importantly—the national right for women to vote.
She won. Big time.
She actually beat the Republican presidential candidate’s numbers in her state by over 25,000 votes. People liked her. They trusted her. But the honeymoon phase didn't last much longer than her first day on the job.
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The Vote That Almost Ended Everything
On April 2, 1917, the very day Rankin was sworn in, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. Talk about a "Welcome to the Office" moment.
The pressure on her was immense. Other suffragists literally begged her to vote for the war. They were terrified that if the "lady from Montana" looked weak or "unpatriotic," it would prove the critics right—that women weren't "tough enough" for politics. They thought she’d ruin the chances for the 19th Amendment.
Rankin didn't care about the strategy. She was a pacifist to her core. When the roll call reached her name, she broke protocol (you aren't supposed to make speeches during the vote) and said:
"I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote no."
She was one of 50 representatives to vote against entering World War I. But because she was the only woman, she was the one the press shredded. They called her a "crying schoolgirl" and "a dupe of the Kaiser."
Why She Matters More Than You Realize
If you think she just faded away after that, you’ve got another thing coming. Rankin stayed busy. Even though her anti-war vote made her a pariah, she stayed in the House long enough to introduce the resolution that eventually became the 19th Amendment.
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She later famously remarked that she was "the only woman who ever voted to give women the right to vote." It’s a cool flex, honestly.
The Second Act and the Pearl Harbor Vote
Rankin lost her bid for the Senate in 1918 (mostly because of that war vote and some gerrymandering of her district). She spent the next 20 years doing grassroots peace work. But in 1940, with another world war looming, she ran for Congress again in Montana.
She won. Again.
Then, December 7, 1941, happened. Pearl Harbor.
This time, she wasn't one of 50. When the vote came to declare war on Japan, the tally was 388 to 1.
Rankin was the "1."
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The backlash was so violent she actually had to lock herself in a phone booth to escape a mob of angry reporters and colleagues until the Capitol Police could escort her away. It was political suicide. She knew it. She did it anyway because she believed killing more people wasn't the answer.
Her Final Act: The Vietnam War
Even in her 80s, Jeannette Rankin wasn't sitting in a rocking chair. In 1968, she led the "Jeannette Rankin Brigade." Over 5,000 women marched on Washington to protest the Vietnam War. She was 87 years old, still holding a banner, still telling the government that war was a "stupid and futile" way to settle things.
Breaking Down the Misconceptions
- Myth: She was the first woman to vote in Congress.
- Reality: While she was the first woman elected to Congress, she was also the only woman to ever vote for the 19th Amendment while serving as a representative.
- Myth: She was a Quaker.
- Reality: Many people assumed her pacifism was religious. It wasn't. It was purely a personal and political conviction.
- Myth: She hated the U.S. military.
- Reality: She actually supported the troops once the wars started; she just believed the decision to enter them was a failure of imagination and diplomacy.
What You Can Learn from Jeannette
Jeannette Rankin died in 1973, but her story isn't just a trivia answer. It’s a lesson in what it looks like to have an "impossible" amount of integrity. Whether you agree with her anti-war stance or think she was dangerously naive, you have to respect the spine on this woman. She was the first to enter a room that didn't want her there, and she refused to change her voice once she got inside.
Your Next Steps to Explore This History:
- Check out the "Jeannette Rankin Brigade" records at the New York Public Library if you're into the 1960s protest era; it shows how her legacy bridged two different centuries of feminism.
- Look up your own state's suffrage history. You might be surprised to find that, like Montana, your home state might have granted women the right to vote years before the federal government got around to it.
- Visit the Statue. If you're ever in the U.S. Capitol, look for her statue in Statuary Hall. Montana sent her there for a reason—she’s their most iconic trailblazer.
Rankin once said, "I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won't be the last." As of today, hundreds have followed her. But none have quite matched her ability to stand absolutely alone in a room of 400 people and say "no" when everyone else was screaming "yes."