Adventures in Feministory: Jeannette Rankin, the First Woman
Elected to U.S. Congress  black and white photo of Jeannette
Rankin  Jeannette Rankin was a suffragist and the first woman
elected into the United States Congress in 1916. A lifelong
pacifist, Rankin was the only person in Congress to vote against
entering both WWI and WWII. She believed that many of the
problems in government were tied to the fact that there weren't
enough women in politics and she said many times, "the peace
problem is a woman's problem."   Rankin was born in 1880 and
raised on a ranch near Missoula, Montana. At a time when college
was out of reach for most Americans (not to mention most women),
Rankin graduated from the University of Montana in 1902 with a
degree in biology. After graduating, this countrywoman moved to
New York and attended the New York School of Philanthropy (known
today as Columbia University's School of Social Work). Rankin
used her studies of social work to start her political
activism—she became a suffragist