The Rest of the Story…

Four years before an amendment giving women the right to vote, Jeannette Rankin was elected to the United States Congress in November 1916. Rankin was also instrumental in initiating the legislation that eventually became the 19th Constitutional Amendment, granting voting rights to women.

Rankin served just one term but came back in 1940 at 60, defeating the incumbent, an antisemite, and served another term. She did vote against entry into WWII. She was the only vote against going to war, stating, “As a woman, I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.” As a side note, she voted against entering WW I.

Rankin’s first election and worked on the 19th Amendment during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the well-known progressive who has been called the Godfather of Liberalism. Wilson opposed the Amendment initially.

While one would expect her to be a democrat, Rankin ran as a Republican for a good reason, but not crucial for this. She died in 1973, about a month short of her 93rd birthday.