Jeannette Rankin: The Peaceful Outlier
Jeannette Rankin was her generation’s most passionate voice against war, a suffragist, reformer, and relentless advocate for peace.
Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress, remains one of the most principled pacifists in American political history. She was a vocal opponent of US intervention in European affairs in World War I and was the lone vote against US entry into World War II. Rankin endured harsh criticism for her choice for the rest of her political career. Rankin’s lifelong advocacy for women’s suffrage, social reform, and nonviolence cemented her legacy as a politician guided by conscience rather than political expediency.