Find it in your favorite podcast app.

---

Go! Go! Go!

Montana had not yet achieved statehood when Jeannette Rankin was born there in 1880. Her parents were early settlers, who worked hard, and did well in the land that was not yet called Big Sky Country.

Jeannette spent her childhood helping on the ranch, in the townhouse, in various side businesses, and at school. When she graduated, she wrote “Go! Go! Go! “in her journal (Josephson, 19). That was certainly an appropriate motto for her whole life, but it does beg the question: Go where?

Jeanette initially had a lot of trouble with that question

She attended Montana State University, mostly because her parents said she should. She majored in biology and did her senior essay on snails, but without any great passion for biology or snails. She drifted through a series of teaching jobs and dressmaker jobs, without any sense of going anywhere in particular.

She began to get a glimmer when she visited her younger brother Wellington at Harvard. Boston was a shock to her. Montana had poverty, but in Boston, she saw crowded immigrant slums where neglected malnourished children grew sick and died because their parents and older siblings were working long hours for pittance pay under dangerous conditions. They had no hope of ever saving enough to live differently.

Jeannette decided to be a social worker. She took a job in San Francisco and then quit to enroll in the NY School of Philanthropy. In both places, she was frustrated by the futility of it. Yes, she could temporarily feed a child or help a sex worker into a better job, but it would never end because the structural problems were still firmly in place.

In the New York Public Library, she read that in 1848, women had met in Seneca Falls, New York, to campaign for the right to vote. Jeannette had more formal education than the vast majority of Americans of any gender, and yet it was news to her that the US had a strong and active woman’s suffrage movement (Rinehart, 41).

It was not news to her that her fellow social workers were almost exclusively female. It seemed to her that women were the ones who cared about the sick children, and girls forced into prostitution, and prison conditions, all of which she had now seen firsthand. If women had the vote, wouldn’t they vote for better structural systems?

Jeannette took a job in Spokane, Washington. The state was gearing up for a vote on women’s suffrage. Jeannette volunteered to help put up posters around town, and she got it done so fast that the campaign organizers offered her a job.

Jeannette had found her calling: It wasn’t social work; it was politics.

Votes for Women!

Never shy, Jeannette walked for hours greeting everyone, handing out leaflets, and making stump speeches.

“Our men of the West are afraid of nothing,” she declared on the docks of Puget Sound, surrounded by the grizzled men who worked there. She told them a story of a little boy who asked his father if he was afraid of lions. No! Of bears? No! And then the boy asked, “Paw, is Maw the only thing you are afraid of?”  

When the laugh died down, Jeannette added “But you men are not afraid of your women, and you’re not afraid to give them the vote” (Rinehart, 48).

The men of Washington voted the way Jeannette told them to. Washington women got to vote in state elections.

By the nature of politics, that put Jeanette out of a job, but she was never happy staying put anyway. (Go, go, go, remember.) She went home to Montana where she as a woman could not vote. The idea was a standing joke in the Montana state legislature, where it had come up several times. They had never put it on a general ballot.

Jeannette asked for permission to speak to the legislators about it, and they allowed it, perhaps because her parents were venerated original settlers, or perhaps because her brother Wellington was now a prominent attorney.

Having a woman speak to the legislature was so unprecedented that they turned into a formal occasion. The room was decorated with flowers and smoking was forbidden.

Jeannette framed her remarks in terms that made sense to her listeners, all of whom were raised to believe that a woman’s place was in the home. She said: “It is beautiful and right that a mother should nurse her child through typhoid fever, but it is also beautiful and right that she should have a voice in regulating the milk supply from which typhoid resulted” (Murphy, 5). Finally, Jeannette told the legislature she wasn’t asking them to grant women the vote. She was asking them to let the voters decide if women should have the vote. Just put it on the ballot. The legislators of Montana did not vote the way Jeannette told them to, but it was a much closer vote than usual (Schaffer, 10; Josephson, 29).

This piecemeal state-by-state effort was important, but what suffragists really wanted was national, across-the-board action. After revitalizing the Montana women’s suffrage movement, Jeannette got a job with the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She was constantly on the move: in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, California, and Montana.

She was very pleased when Montana finally agreed to put women’s suffrage on the ballot, and it passed on November 3, 1914, due largely to Jeannette’s leadership (Schaffer, 14).

It was a victory, and after a brief holiday, Jeannette was ready to “Go! Go! Go!” in a bigger sense than ever before.

On the Campaign Trail

On July 13, 1916, she gave a speech at the Montana Good Government Club, and she said:

 “There is no way in which the women of Montana can help the women of other states to gain the ballot more than by sending one of their number to Congress. Nothing else will go so far toward overcoming the prejudice against women in office, and nothing would be a greater aid to the feminist movement than to have the higher offices filled by women.” (Rinehart, 102-103)

And with that, Jeannette Rankin was running for Congress on the Republican ticket.

(As a side note, I feel the need to tell you that in US politics, the names of the two parties are far more constant than anything else about the two parties. The issues, the platforms, and the constituencies have swerved, detoured, and outright flipflopped multiple times since Jeannette’s day. Modern-day Republicans and Democrats have more in common with each other than with either of Jeannette’s party choices. So there’s no need to either cheer or boo here based on your own party choices. End of aside.)

Jeanette’s biggest supporter was her brother Wellington. He thought she could win because her family was well known, she herself was well known, she was a fantastic campaigner, and women would vote for her no matter which party she was in.

The other advantage was that Montana had no districts. Both of its House Representatives covered the whole state, so no gerrymandering could hamper her efforts.

Jeannette drove herself around and spoke to everyone. Her platform was votes for women on the national level, legal protections for children, revise Congressional rules to allow it to act faster, and keep us out of that war in Europe.

On November 6, 1916, Jeannette Rankin voted for the first time in her life. She voted for herself because she was on the ballot. And she won! The US had its first woman in Congress.

Voting No on World War I

The press had largely ignored her campaign. She was just a crazy woman, right? But after she won, she became national news.

She was also in demand as a paid speaker. She went on tour in the months before she took office. People came out in droves to see the Lady Congressman. Many were there for the spectacle, but others asked her more substantive questions like what about that war over in Europe? It was the biggest question of the time, and of far more interest to many people than little issues like votes for women.

But to Jeannette these two issues were linked. She told a New York audience that “women ought to have a right to say whether their men shall go to war” (Josephson, 65).

Jeannette was firmly convinced that women wouldn’t vote for war. It was a common idea within the international peace movement. While there were also many men in the peace movement, there was no denying that the loudest and most effective voices were often women, such as Bertha von Suttner, first female winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (see episode 14.10). The history of humanity was stained with blood, but surely, surely that was because men had always been in charge. Women were more conciliatory, better at talking things through, better at reining in their anger, less likely to feel the need to flex their muscles to impress others. Women would not choose a barbaric method of settling disputes like wholesale slaughter of their sons. This was the view of many in the peace movement, including Jeannette.

(A second aside—This idea continues to be common in many online groups pushing matriarchy and women’s representation, but I have to say, I don’t think history fully supports it. Plenty of wars have happened in countries that had women voting and even that had women in the top job. However, Jeannette could not have known that. No country had yet elected enough women to say either way. End of second aside.)

Anyway, Jeannette’s entrance into the House was greeted with cheers and applause. A woman in the visitor’s gallery that day reported that Jeannette “met each [man] with a … frank smile and shook hands cordially and unaffectedly. It would have been sickening if she had smirked or giggled or been coquettish; worse still if she had been masculine and hail-fellowish. She was just a sensible young woman going about her business” (Josephson, 71).

Later that very same day, President Wilson came to Congress and asked them to approve the US entrance into World War I. Wilson was in his second term of office, and his latest campaign slogan was “He Kept Us Out of War” (Murphy, 4).

Wilson’s change of heart was not unexpected, but it was unfortunate for Jeannette that it came so soon. It was her very first day, for crying out loud, and she was under a great deal of pressure. She believed in peace and had said so during her campaign. But Wellington advised her to vote for war. The US entrance was practically a foregone conclusion already. If she voted against something that so many people in the country wanted, her career would never recover. She’d never get reelected.

Jeannette’s suffragist friends also urged her to vote for war. The majority of them were women, which was a little bit of a blow to Jeannette’s theories, but their main point was that women could not afford to be seen as sentimental, unpatriotic, and unable to take the hard line and make the right decisions. The legitimacy of women voting was at stake (Murphy, 7; Josephson, 73).

Jeannette listened very carefully to all the arguments, and when the roll call came to her she said, “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote no” (Josephson, 76).

The declaration of war passed. The news coverage focused on Jeannette’s vote, and most of it was negative. One newspaper editor called it a fit of female hysteria (Murphy, 6), forgetting that forty-nine of the male legislators also voted no. A fellow legislator was asked whether Jeannette was crying when she cast her vote. He said he didn’t know because he was crying himself (Murphy, 4).

The Aftermath of Voting No

After her big splash so quickly, Jeannette served her term in relative obscurity, which is not to say that she did nothing. On the contrary, she called for equal employment of women, introduced a bill to support families of soldiers, investigated labor abuses in the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, championed miner’s rights against the Anaconda Copper Company in Montana, called for investigation of prison conditions, and introduced a bill to appropriate funds for instruction on feminine hygiene, which was the common euphemism for birth control (see episode 15.9). She also joined the committee on women’s suffrage and grilled the expert witnesses who appeared to argue against it. She later voted yes on the bill to allow women to vote (Josephson, 85-101).

She even voted for war against Hungary and Austria, but she was careful to explain her motives: she still thought war was a ridiculous way to settle disputes. But since we were already at war against Germany, we were effectively also at war against Germany’s allies. The vote was a formality to recognize what was already a reality. She saw no reason to deny reality, as regrettable as it was (Josephson, 85).

Jeannette wanted to stay in Congress when her two-year term was up. Wellington had warned her that voting for peace would be damaging, and he was right, even though it was part of the platform she had campaigned on. But it was her support of miners against the Anaconda Copper Company that doomed her reelection entirely. The Copper Company controlled Montana, and they had districts introduced specifically so that it would be easier to keep Jeannette out of office. In other words, they gerrymandered it. Add to that a violent snowstorm and an influenza epidemic on election day. It all mean that few of Jeannette’s admirers even showed up to vote. She was out of office and out of a job in 1919 (Josephson, 105).

But she was far from done with politics. Throughout the twenties she worked as a lobbyist. Woman’s suffrage was accomplished, but peace was still elusive. Bolshevism was rising in the east, and the fear of it caused civil rights abuses in the US. Jeannette protested these and served briefly as the vice-president of the very new American Civil Liberties Union. She also argued for improved factory conditions and education on feminine hygiene and a ban on child labor. She was all over the country doing this work, sometimes for small pay, sometimes for no pay. In between times she bought a farm in Georgia and lived in a house that had neither electricity nor running water (Alonso, 40).

She continued this work into the desperate years of the 1930s, when money was even scarcer and the prospect of war even closer. In 1932, Japan invaded Manchuria. In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany. Other governments began getting nervous and building up their armaments. Americans had their oceans to protect them on both sides, but there was no doubt that many Americans would financially benefit from war elsewhere. Jeannette thought that was despicable. She went before Congress and testified on a financial scheme to remove the profit motive of out of war, adding that if they, the US Congress voted for war, they should be paid “$30 a month, or whatever a soldier’s wage is, in whatever currency is used, to everyone, and let everyone have a tin cup and bread card and subsist on the same food that the soldier does, beginning with the President. For members of Congress who have voted for war [let them receive], not only the $30 a month, but also the honor of carrying the flag in battle, so that they would feel that they are doing their bit” (Josephson, 139).

Congress was not very impressed with Jeannette’s financial proposals, but they did pass a Neutrality Act in 1935. Jeannette was not particularly impressed with their neutrality (Wilson, 45). The Act was only designed to last six months. Jeannette was traveling everywhere giving impassioned speeches on the subject, saying things like “The fact that we have never had peace need not deter us. Every day we see things we have never seen before” (Josephson, 143).

In spite of her efforts, the world was growing ever more dangerous, not less.

Voting No on World War II

In 1939, Jeannette resigned from the National Council on Peace in order to run for office again herself. It was clear to her that someone had to be in Congress to vote for peace. She again had Wellington’s support, both political and financial. Also to her advantage was that the Anaconda Copper Company was long gone.

And she won. After a hiatus of twenty years, she was back in office.

Jeannette’s second entrance into the House was less dramatic than the first. She wasn’t the only woman anymore, which was good because it meant the buildings now had ladies’ rooms, which had not been true the first time.

Also, she had a little time before the president came and asked her to vote for war. Jeannette used that time to prepare. Again and again, she introduced legislation to try to make it harder for the US to enter the war. She lost every time.

On December 7, 1941, Jeannette was on a train to Detroit when she heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. She immediately got off her train and boarded one going back to DC. Congress’s debate on declaring war lasted only forty minutes, and the Speaker of the House would not recognize Jeannette’s attempt to speak during the debate.

When the roll call came around, she said loudly, “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else” (Josephson, 162).

This time, she was the only no vote. The attack on Pearl Harbor had convinced every other pacifist in Congress to vote yes.

Jeannette was reviled for her vote. Police had to escort her home to protect her from violence.

A few newspapers gave her credit for sticking to her principles. The Emporia Gazette wrote:

“Probably 100 men in Congress would have liked to do what she did. Not one of them had the courage to do it. The Gazette entirely disagrees with the wisdom of her position. But Lord, it was a brave thing! When in one-hundred years from now, courage, sheer courage based on moral indignation, is celebrated in this country, the name of Jeannette Rankin, who stood firm in folly for her faith, will be written in monumental bronze not for what she did but for the way she did it” (Josephson, 162-163).

With a vote like that, it is unsurprising that Montana did not reelect her when this term was up. Nor could she return to working for the Peace Movement. There effectively was no Peace Movement any more. How could there be? Most of the world was engulfed in a war that was (or at least seemed) existential. Very few people really believed we could counter this kind of violence with nonviolence. All sides soon had abundant proof of the ferocity and immorality of the other side. They had to strike back. Or at least, they thought they did. Jeannette just disagreed.

She returned to Montana to care for her aging mother until the war was over.

Working for Peace Again

When the war ended, Jeannette decided to travel. She went to India to meet the man who really did believe he could meet violence with nonviolence. Jeannette visited Gandhi’s ashram and studied his methods, but she didn’t actually get to meet him. He was assassinated before she made that meeting work. That didn’t stop her from taking several more trips to India. Also Ireland, the Soviet Union, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. She was in her 80s and she was still doing this, when suddenly she became relevant at home again.

In the late 1960s, the US was embroiled in the Vietnam War. (Incidentally, no president asked Congress about that war, nor have they asked about any conflict since Jeannette’s time. Presidents ever since then have been ignoring the part in the Constitution that says Congress declares war, not the president.)

Plenty of people thought the Vietnam War was a bad idea, even if they believed past wars had been a good idea. Jeannette Rankin’s track record on protesting war was exemplary, and the protestors noticed. On January 15, 1968, Jeannette led thousands of women through the streets of DC, until police barred their way. Ultimately, they did give armed escort Jeannette and fifteen other women into the Capitol Building to present a petition to the Speaker. Along the way, Jeannette companionably told her police escort that “we are unarmed and not at all threatening. Do you really need those great big guns to handle an old lady?” (Josephson, 188; Wilson, 52). One of the other fifteen women with her was Coretta Scott King (see episode 14.21).

The Vietnam War went on and on. So did Jeannette Rankin: marching, protesting, speaking, and writing letters in favor of peace. When someone said that bringing the armed forces back from Vietnam would be interpreted as surrender, she had a short answer: “Surrender is a military idea. When you’re doing something wrong, you stop” (Josephson, 198).

Jeannette never let go of “Go! Go! Go!” Perhaps because she never truly accomplished her goal. At the age of 92, she said “I worked for suffrage for years, and got it. I’ve worked for peace for fifty-five years and haven’t come close.” She was disgusted with the current leadership. In fact, she was thinking of running for Congress again. Just to have someone to vote for (Josephson, 209).

She died that same year on May 18, 1973.

Perhaps it is because her peace efforts failed that she was proudest of her achievements in women’s suffrage. She said, “If I am remembered for no other act, I want to be remembered as the only woman who ever voted to give women the right to vote” (Congressional Record, May 21, 1983).

If you enjoyed this story, please consider supporting the show to help keep it running. Subscribers on Patreon and Substack can get benefits like the weekly newsletter and bonus podcast episodes and ad-free episodes. If you’d rather do a one time donation on Buy Me a Coffee, that’s much appreciated too.

Selected Sources

Alonso, Harriet Hyman. “Jeannette Rankin and the Women’s Peace Union.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 39, no. 2 (1989): 34–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4519215.

Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the … Congress. United States: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Congressional_Record/YcpZ7CaiQgAC?hl=en&gbpv=0. Accessed May 10, 2026.

Elsesser, Kim. “Sheryl Sandberg Says Female Leaders Don’t Go to War. Here’s What Research Says.” Forbes, March 8, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2022/03/08/sheryl-sandberg-says-female-leaders-dont-go-to-war-heres-what-research-says/.

Josephson, Hannah. Jeannette Rankin, First Lady in Congress. Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1974.

Murphy, Mary. “When Jeannette Said ‘No’: Montana Women’s Response to World War I.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 65, no. 1 (2015): 3–94. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24420046.

Rinehart, Lorissa. Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress. St. Martin’s Press, 2025.

Schaffer, Ronald. “The Montana Woman Suffrage Campaign, 1911-14.” The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 55, no. 1 (1964): 9–15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40487881.

Wilson, Joan Hoff. “‘Peace Is a Woman’s Job…’ Jeannette Rankin and American Foreign Policy: Her Lifework as a Pacifist.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 30, no. 2 (1980): 38–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4518483.