Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress at a time when most women were denied the right to vote. She voted against US entry into both World Wars and protested the Viet Nam War.Although her anti-war stance was unpopular during her Congressional years, she never backed down.
Ms. Rankin on War
“I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote no.” 1917
“There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense; for war is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible.” 1929
Concerning Equal Rights
“Men and women are like right and left hands; it doesn't make sense not to use both.”
“We're half the people; we should be half the Congress.”
“The individual woman is required . . . a thousand times a day to choose either to accept her appointed role and thereby rescue her good disposition out of the wreckage of her self-respect, or else follow an independent line of behavior and rescue her self-respect out of the wreckage of her good disposition.”
About the picture –
This picture is from my photography exhibit, Women at Work, a show I created for Middle School girls. The exhibit was funded by a grant from the Puffin Foundation.
The photograph is a darkroom composite of a frame of the Rankin statue on the second floor of the Montana Capitol building and a formal portrait of Ms. Rankin.
I love this. I love Jeannette Rankin, too. I'm glad you're spreading the knowledge to other young girls. When I was a kid I was given a book "Women of Courage," by the illustrator's grandmother. I don't tihnk I appreciated it then; it seemed boring compared to books I read about magic and such. But now it's one of my treasures.
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