“Winning the Earthquake” by Lorissa Rinehart

The first woman to serve in the U.S. congress didn’t come from New York or Boston but from Montana. Jeannette Rankin served two terms in Congress—not in succession but terms separated by more than 20 years.

Among her many distinctions is that she was the only legislator to cast votes against two world wars, once in 1917 and again in 1941. Lorissa Rinehart brings Rankin to life in her book, Winning the Earthquake, a reference to her stated belief you could no more win a war than win an earthquake.

She was gerrymandered out of office the first time by all-powerful Anaconda Copper, a company that ran the state of Montana (until the copper ran out), and later by WWII proponents who couldn’t abide her not voting for war in the face of Pearl Harbor.

But Rankin did more than cast votes for peace. Her organizational ability and eloquence helped get women the right to vote in Montana six years before the 19th Amendment was passed to allow women across the country to cast a ballot.

In 1916, she made the extraordinary decision to visit New Zealand because she wanted to talk to those who lived in a country where women had been voting since 1893. But as Rinehart noted, her trip and stay in New Zealand was not a vacation. Instead, she booked a room in a boardinghouse and took on the role of an “American seamstress,” going house to house mending, stitching and fitting women’s dresses while talking with the people. Rankin learned about advances women had made in the country since obtaining the vote.

After she was sworn in on April 2, 1917, one of Rankin’s first acts as a new congresswoman was to introduce the Susan B. Anthony Woman Suffrage amendment for consideration by the House. The amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878. Although it had been debated several times through the years, it had only come to the floor for a vote once in 1887 and was defeated. During the two years of her House term, Rankin consistently advocated for the amendment's passage. She wrote newspaper columns and granted interviews to reporters to keep up publicity for woman suffrage. 

While running for office in 1917, Rankin crossed the state of Montana and “spoke everywhere that would have her and many places that wouldn’t,” said Rinehart. “More and more, she began to fold talk of war into her speeches, often arguing that if women were required to send their sons to war, then surely they should be a party to the decision of whether the country should go at all.”

When Rankin spoke at schools across the state, she sent students home with buttons and sashes that read, I WANT MY MOTHER TO VOTE.

Rankin was a keen believer that a majority of Americans would always choose the best path. As a result, she opposed the Electoral College when it came to electing a president. She also spoke against redistricting practices designed to benefit a political party not the majority of the people.

A champion of democratic reform who ran as a Republican, Rankin has been largely overlooked for the contributions she made in the 20th century, said Rinehart, adding: “Jeannette labored for what she believed to be right until her very last days, without expectation and always with the hope that her words and deeds might one day find resonance in the enduring chorus of an America she loved so dearly. If that time has not yet arrived, surely, she would have believed, it will soon.”