Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She dedicated her life to women's rights and world peace. Rankin was born on a ranch near Missoula, Montana, on June 11, 1880. There she grew up and went to school with six younger brothers and sisters. By age twenty, she counted herself among a handful of women enrolled at the University of Montana, earning a degree in biology in 1902.

Rankin tried many different occupations. First she taught school but then discovered she could earn more money as a seamstress. Hungry for a more meaningful life, her interest in the political and social problems of women and children took her to the New York School of Philanthropy in 1908. Like many reform-minded women of her day, Rankin returned west to became a social worker in Seattle, Washington. Still not satisfied with her life, she quit social work to attend the University of Washington, where she quickly became caught up in the women's suffrage campaign gaining momentum there. Over the next few years, Rankin worked tirelessly in Washington, California, and Ohio and in 1914 helped win suffrage in her home state of Montana.

Rankin was now ready for her real calling: politics. Although she was a Republican in a Democratic state, she won an ambitious campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives in 1916--before most American women were even allowed to vote. Her platform supported national women's suffrage, child labor laws, and prohibition. People in Washington, D.C., expected the Montana rancher's daughter to ride into Congress on a horse with a gun drawn. Rankin surprised them all with her confident, educated manner, as well as her political sophistication.

Rankin's first major decision was to vote against U.S. entry into World War I. She believed that too many people would die for a small group of wealthy European leaders. Rankin cried when she cast her vote, because friends and family members disagreed with her.

Rankin continued to lobby against U.S. military involvement in the world after her first term in Congress ended. In 1940, Rankin won a second term in the House of Representatives, where she voted against the declaration of war on Japan in World War II. Her anti-war stand was unpopular in Montana, and so she reluctantly quit politics to study the nonviolent philosophy of Mohandas Gandhi. In 1968, the elderly Rankin led more than 5,000 women called the "Jeannette Rankin Brigade" in a march against the Vietnam War. Her rich life as a "warrior for peace" ended on May 18, 1973, at age ninety-three. A bronze statue memorializes her at the U.S. Capitol.