Jeannette Rankin

Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was the first woman in the United States Congress, elected in Montana in 1916 and again in 1940. After being elected in 1916 she said, "I may be the first woman member of Congress but I won’t be the last."

Rankin's two terms in Congress coincided with U.S. entry into both world wars. A lifelong pacifist, she was one of fifty members of Congress who voted against entry into World War I in 1917, and the only member of Congress who voted against declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

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