Norma Smith’s
biography, Jeannette Rankin: America’s Conscience, records the
inspiring courage, integrity and optimism of the first woman
elected to Congress, dramatically recounting Rankin’s struggles and
successes as an activist.
Smith, a personal
friend of Rankin, writes that as a congresswoman, Rankin’s
interests shifted from suffrage to pacifism. She often said, “The
first vote of the first woman member of Congress was a vote against
war,” and, indeed, she was the only congressperson to vote against
U.S. entry into both world wars. She argued that “shooting a young
man is no way to settle a political dispute” – a view that
guaranteed her loss in the next election. Held by her moral
convictions, Rankin rebounded, saying, “I’m not interested in
(re-election). All I’m interested in (is) what they’ll say 50 years
from now.”
A native Montanan, Rankin championed
the women’s suffrage movement from the West Coast to the East.
Interestingly, she did not argue that suffrage was an inalienable
right for women; rather, Smith writes, Rankin fought for women’s
suffrage on behalf of the nation’s children. She realized that “if
we were to have decent laws for children, sanitary jails, safe food
supplies, women would have to vote.”
While Smith
captures Rankin’s charismatic, resolute personality, she also notes
that Rankin’s temper and tendency to be stubborn left her feeling
isolated and friendless.
Working on issues that
ranged from poverty, low-income housing, factory conditions and
health care, to suffrage and pacifism, Jeannette Rankin never gave
up. In 1968, she led 5,000 women in a protest against the Vietnam
War. And at the age of 88, when she was fighting for electoral
reform and offered a chair because of her age, she replied, “No
thanks, I fight better standing up.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline An activist who never let up.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
