Today We Honor the Only Woman Who Ever Voted to Give U.S. Women the Right to Vote
Jeannette Rankin
(Public Domain via the Library of Congress)
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Today We Honor the Only Woman Who Ever Voted to Give U.S. Women the Right to Vote
100 years ago, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to CongressBy Danny Lewis
smithsonian.comThe road leading to Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to run for president as the candidate for a major American political party was paved by plenty of women who came before her. But with the election just a few hours away, there are few who are more poignant than Jeanette Rankin, who became the first woman elected to Congress 100 years ago today.
Rankin’s life was defined by her ambition and drive. Born near Missoula, Montana, on June 11, 1880, Rankin came from humble roots. Her father was a rancher and her mother was a schoolteacher. Rankin earning a biology degree from the University of Montana and then tried out teaching like her mother, according to biography.com. However, after that didn’t stick, Rankin worked as a seamstress and a social worker before she found her calling in the burgeoning women’s suffrage movement.
It’s a good day to remember her and her example to all of us; standing for what she believed in would help win suffrage for women and cost her her place in congress, not once but twice. Principle and honor; something more of us need to remember in an age where the Deplorables and their hate are allowed to set the agenda.
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