Jeannette Rankin

The Awesome Woman of the Day for Wednesday, August 1, 2012 is Jeannette Rankin. In the USA, most women did not get the right to vote until August 26, 1920; however, some states granted women voting rights earlier than that. In Montana, women gained the right to vote in 1914, and Jeannette Rankin (June 11, 1880 May 18, 1973) became the first woman elected to U.S. Congress in 1916.

She was a pacifist, one of only a few members of Congress to vote against entering World War I and the only one to vote against entering World War II (which probably cost her her seat). Her reasoning was that she, as a woman, could not serve in combat and, thus, had no moral right to send others to die. http://jrpc.org/



For more information:

http://www.biography.com/people/jeannette-rankin-9451806