… cast the sole vote in Congress against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan on this date in 1941. In 1917, she also voted against entry into World War I.
When elected in 1916, Rankin was the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was not re-elected in 1918, after voting against entry in the First World War, but was returned to Congress for one term in 1940.
Jeanette Rankin was a social worker and a lobbyist for peace and women’s rights. She died just before her 93rd birthday in 1973. She is one of the two Montanans honored in The National Statuary Hall Collection of the U.S. Capitol.