“Men and women are like two hands; it doesn’t make sense not to use them both.”- Jeannette Rankin, suffragette, human rights activist-(June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973)
Jeannette Rankin was the first American woman elected to Congress (November 6, 1916). Rankin attended Montana State University at Missoula and graduated in 1902 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Next, Rankin studied at the University of Washington in Seattle and became involved in the woman suffrage movement in 1910.
Visiting Montana, Rankin became the first woman to speak before the Montana legislature, where she surprised the spectators and legislators alike with her speaking ability. She organized and spoke for the Equal Franchise Society.
