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176-514: Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was an American politician and women's rights advocate who became the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from Montana in 1916 for one term, then was elected again in 1940 . Rankin remains the only woman ever elected to Congress from Montana . Each of Rankin's congressional terms coincided with

352-533: A song cycle about Rankin called Fierce Grace that premiered in 2017. In 2018, the Kalispell Brewing Company commissioned a mural on the side of its building in Kalispell, Montana , featuring a Rankin caricature and quotation. Rankin is the subject of the musical We Won't Sleep (formerly Jeannette ) with music and lyrics by Arianna Afsar and a book by Lauren Gunderson . Under the title Jeannette ,

528-583: A competing organization called the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women. Later known as the Women's Political Union, its membership was based on working women, both professional and industrial. Blatch had recently returned to the United States after several years in England, where she had worked with suffrage groups in the early phases of employing militant tactics as part of their campaign. The Equality League gained

704-485: A condition that a widow's right to property should cease on remarriage, and the Leonine Constitutions at the end of the 9th century made third marriages punishable. The same constitutions made the benediction of a priest a necessary part of the ceremony of marriage. Women throughout historical and ancient China were considered inferior and had subordinate legal status based on Confucian law . In Imperial China,

880-506: A controversial best-seller that attacked the use of the Bible to relegate women to an inferior status. Her opponents within the NAWSA reacted strongly. They felt that the book would harm the drive for women's suffrage. Rachel Foster Avery, the organization's corresponding secretary, sharply denounced Stanton's book in her annual report to the 1896 convention. The NAWSA voted to disavow any connection with

1056-466: A crime in which the victim bore no guilt and a capital crime. The rape of a woman was considered an attack on her family and father's honour, and rape victims were shamed for allowing the bad name in her father's honour. As a matter of law, rape could be committed only against a citizen in good standing. The rape of a slave could be prosecuted only as damage to her owner's property. The first Roman emperor , Augustus , framed his ascent to sole power as

1232-501: A critical mass of voters that could push through a suffrage amendment at the national level. In 1913, the Southern States Woman Suffrage Committee was formed in an attempt to stop that process from moving past the state level. It was led by Kate Gordon, who had been the NAWSA's corresponding secretary from 1901 to 1909. Gordon, who was from the southern state of Louisiana, supported women's suffrage, but opposed

1408-477: A development that drew the interest of many suffragists. Blackwell's ally in this effort was Laura Clay , who convinced the NAWSA to launch a campaign in the South based on Blackwell's strategy. Clay was one of several southern NAWSA members who objected to the proposed national women's suffrage amendment on the grounds that it would impinge on states' rights . Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt traveled through

1584-486: A divorced husband could easily remarry another woman, provided that his first wife had borne him no offspring. Female deities, such as Inanna , were widely worshipped. The Akkadian poet Enheduanna , the priestess of Inanna and daughter of Sargon , is the earliest known poet whose name has been recorded. Old Babylonian law codes permitted a husband to divorce his wife under any circumstances, but doing so required him to return all of her property and sometimes pay her

1760-495: A dowry from the husband, which she could administer as her personal property, the Qur'an made women a legal party to the marriage contract . While in customary law, inheritance was often limited to male descendants, the Qur'an included rules on inheritance with certain fixed shares being distributed to designated heirs, first to the nearest female relatives and then the nearest male relatives. According to Annemarie Schimmel "compared to

1936-409: A fine. Most law codes forbade a woman to request her husband for a divorce and enforced the same penalties on a woman asking for divorce as on a woman caught in the act of adultery . Some Babylonian and Assyrian laws, however, afforded women the same right to divorce as men, requiring them to pay the same fine. The majority of East Semitic deities were male. In ancient Egypt, women enjoyed

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2112-425: A following by engaging in activities that many members of the NAWSA initially considered too daring, such as suffrage parades and open air rallies. Blatch said that when she joined the suffrage movement in the U.S., "The only method suggested for furthering the cause was the slow process of education. We were told to organize, organize, organize, to the end of educating, educating, educating public opinion." In 1908,

2288-531: A four-room headquarters. Shaw was not entirely comfortable with the independent initiatives of the WSP, but Catt and other of its leaders remained loyal to the NAWSA, its parent organization. In 1909, Frances Squires Potter, a NAWSA member from Chicago, proposed the creation of suffrage community centers called "political settlements." Reminiscent of the social settlement houses , such as Hull House in Chicago, their purpose

2464-502: A frankly racist program, it asked for NAWSA's endorsement. Shaw refused, setting a limit on how far the organization was willing to go to accommodate southerners with overtly racist views. Shaw said the organization would not adopt policies that "advocated the exclusion of any race or class from the right of suffrage." In 1907, partly in reaction to NAWSA's "society plan", which was designed to appeal to upper-class women, Harriet Stanton Blatch , daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton , formed

2640-494: A higher honor and loyalty." Over the next twenty years, Rankin travelled the world, frequently visiting India, where she studied the pacifist teachings of Mahatma Gandhi . She maintained homes in both Georgia and Montana. In the 1960s and 1970s, a new generation of pacifists, feminists, and civil rights advocates found inspiration in Rankin and embraced her efforts in ways that her generation had not. She mobilized again in response to

2816-498: A historical context, Muhammad "can be seen as a figure who testified on behalf of women's rights." Women's rights were protected already by the early Medieval Christian Church: one of the first formal legal provisions for the right of wives was promulgated by council of Adge in 506, which in Canon XVI stipulated that if a young married man wished to be ordained, he required the consent of his wife. The English Church and culture in

2992-552: A husband and eventually becoming a mother. That was the core purpose set out both culturally and religiously across Medieval Europe. Rape was also seen in medieval England as a crime against the father or husband and a violation of their protection and guardianship of the women whom they look after in the household. Women's identities in the Middle Ages were also referred through their relations with men they associated with, such as "his daughter" or "so and so's wife". Despite all this,

3168-568: A husband's transferring property without the consent of his wife, but he still retained the right to manage it and to receive the money which it produced. French married women suffered from restrictions on their legal capacity which were removed only in 1965. In the 16th century, the Reformation in Europe allowed more women to add their voices, including the English writers Jane Anger , Aemilia Lanyer , and

3344-549: A joint session, asked Congress to "make the world safe for democracy" by declaring war on Germany . After intense debate, the war resolution came to a vote in the House at 3:00 am on April 6; Rankin cast one of 50 votes in opposition. "I wish to stand for my country," she said, "but I cannot vote for war." Years later, she would add, "I felt the first time the first woman had a chance to say no to war, she should say it." Although 49 male Representatives and six Senators also voted against

3520-496: A lesser degree than their children. This archaic form of manus marriage was largely abandoned by the time of Julius Caesar , when a woman remained under her father's authority by law even when she moved into her husband's home. This arrangement was one of the factors in the independence Roman women enjoyed. Although women had to answer to their fathers in legal matters, they were free of his direct scrutiny in their daily lives, and their husbands had no legal power over them. When

3696-450: A lifelong, close friendship with the noted journalist and author Katherine Anthony , the women were never romantically involved. Rankin's biographers disagree on her sexual orientation, but generally agree that she was too consumed by her work to pursue committed personal relationships. Rankin died on May 18, 1973, at age 92, in Carmel, California . There is a memorial stone dedicated to her in

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3872-468: A man. They were simultaneously disparaged as too ignorant and weak-minded to practice law, and as too active and influential in legal matters—resulting in an edict that limited women to conducting cases on their own behalf instead of others'. But even after this restriction was put in place, there are numerous examples of women taking informed actions in legal matters, including dictating legal strategy to their male advocates. Roman law recognized rape as

4048-565: A married man did not commit adultery when he had sex with a prostitute, slave , or person of marginalized status ( infamis ) . Most prostitutes in ancient Rome were slaves, though some slaves were protected from forced prostitution by a clause in their sales contract. A free woman who worked as a prostitute or entertainer lost her social standing and became infamis , "disreputable"; by making her body publicly available, she had in effect surrendered her right to be protected from sexual abuse or physical violence. Stoic philosophies influenced

4224-436: A married woman's "door of escape from bondage." Her speech had little lasting impact on the organization, however, because most of the younger suffragists did not agree with her approach. Stanton's election as president was largely symbolic. Before the convention was over, she left for another extended stay with her daughter in England, leaving Anthony in charge. Stanton retired from the presidency in 1892, after which Anthony

4400-558: A massive protest strike over working conditions. Rankin tried to intervene, but mining companies refused to meet with her or the miners, and her proposed legislation to end the strike was unsuccessful. She had greater success pushing for better working conditions in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing . Rankin listened to the grievances of federal workers in the bureau, which included long hours and an excessively demanding work pace. She hired investigative reporter Elizabeth Watson to investigate. As

4576-453: A national suffrage amendment. Anthony said she feared, accurately as it turned out, that the NAWSA would engage in suffrage work at the state level at the expense of national work. The NAWSA routinely allocated no funding at all for congressional work, which at this stage consisted only of one day of testimony before Congress each year. Stanton's radicalism did not sit well with the new organization. In 1895 she published The Woman's Bible ,

4752-772: A preeminent goal of the movement. Three leaders of the women's movement during this period, Lucy Stone , Elizabeth Cady Stanton , and Susan B. Anthony , played prominent roles in the creation of the NAWSA many years later. In 1866, just after the American Civil War , the Eleventh National Women's Rights Convention transformed itself into the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), which worked for equal rights for both African Americans and white women, especially suffrage. The AERA essentially collapsed in 1869, partly because of disagreement over

4928-493: A professed religious life, and of due provision for the wife. The church also supported the political power of those who were friendly toward the clergy. The appointment of mothers and grandmothers as tutors was sanctioned by Justinian. The restrictions on the marriage of senators and other men of high rank with women of low rank were extended by Constantine , but it was almost entirely removed by Justinian . Second marriages were discouraged, especially by making it legal to impose

5104-407: A result of her efforts to draw attention to the working conditions of the bureau, Treasury Secretary William McAdoo convened his own investigation and ultimately limited the work day to eight hours. By 1917, women had been granted some form of voting rights in about forty states. Rankin continued to lead the movement for unrestricted universal enfranchisement. She was instrumental in the creation of

5280-498: A return to traditional morality , and attempted to regulate the conduct of women through moral legislation . Adultery , which had been a private family matter under the Republic, was criminalized, and defined broadly as an illicit sex act ( stuprum ) that occurred between a male citizen and a married woman, or between a married woman and any man other than her husband. Therefore, a married woman could have sex only with her husband, but

5456-513: A rival organization, the National Woman's Party . When Catt again became president in 1915, the NAWSA adopted her plan to centralize the organization, and work toward the suffrage amendment as its primary goal. This was done despite opposition from Southern members who believed that a federal amendment would erode states' rights . With its large membership and the increasing number of women voters in states where suffrage had already been achieved,

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5632-499: A similar amendment for women. She said that even though the right to vote was more important for women than for black men, "I will be thankful in my soul if any body can get out of the terrible pit." In May 1869, two days after the acrimonious debates at what turned out to be the final AERA annual meeting, Anthony, Stanton and their allies formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). In November 1869,

5808-626: A simple life there, without electricity or plumbing, although she also maintained a residence in Montana. Rankin made frequent speeches around the country on behalf of the Women's Peace Union and the National Council for the Prevention of War (NCPW). In 1928 she founded the Georgia Peace Society, which served as headquarters for her pacifism campaign until its dissolution in 1941, on the eve of

5984-649: A splinter group of activists from the women's liberation movement created a protest within the Brigade's protest by staging a "Burial of True Womanhood " at Arlington National Cemetery to draw attention to the passive role allotted to women as wives and mothers. In 1972, Rankin—by then in her nineties—considered mounting a third House campaign to gain a wider audience for her opposition to the Vietnam War, but longstanding throat and heart ailments forced her to abandon that final project. Rankin never married. While she maintained

6160-468: A strong philosophical basis. Roman law, similar to Athenian law, was created by men in favor of men. Women had no public voice and no public role, which only improved after the 1st century to the 6th century BCE. Freeborn women of ancient Rome were citizens who enjoyed legal privileges and protections that did not extend to non-citizens or slaves . Roman society , however, was patriarchal , and women could not vote, hold public office , or serve in

6336-429: A union, the elders were not keen for it, on either side, but the younger women on both sides were. Nothing really stood in the way except the unpleasant feelings engendered during the long separation". Several attempts had been made to bring the two sides together, but without success. The situation changed in 1887 when Stone, who was approaching her 70th birthday and in declining health, began to seek ways of overcoming

6512-399: A woman in such a position was called frilla . There was no distinction made between children born inside or outside of marriage: both had the right to inherit property after their parents, and there were no "legitimate" or "illegitimate" children. These liberties gradually disappeared after the introduction of Christianity, and from the late 13th century, they are no longer mentioned. During

6688-433: A woman's father died, she became legally emancipated ( sui iuris ) . A married woman retained ownership of any property she brought into the marriage. Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will. Under classical Roman law , a husband had no right to abuse his wife physically or compel her to have sex. Wife beating was sufficient grounds for divorce or other legal action against

6864-567: Is 100 percent against you." A wire-service photo of Rankin sequestered in the phone booth, calling for assistance, appeared the following day in newspapers across the country. While her action was widely ridiculed in the press, Progressive leader William Allen White , writing in the Kansas Emporia Gazette , acknowledged her courage in taking it: Probably a hundred men in Congress would have liked to do what she did. Not one of them had

7040-537: Is recognized in the national body, and each auxiliary State association arranges its own affairs in accordance with its own ideas and in harmony with the customs of its own section." As NAWSA turned its attention to a Constitutional Amendment, many Southern suffragists remained opposed because a federal amendment would enfranchise Black women. In response, in 1914, Kate Gordon founded the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference , which opposed

7216-454: Is that of safeguarding the household property created by men. According to Aristotle, the labour of women added no value because "the art of household management is not identical with the art of getting wealth, for the one uses the material which the other provides". Contrary to Plato's views, the Stoic philosophers argued for equality of the sexes, sexual inequality being in their view contrary to

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7392-502: Is to go free, without any payment of money" ( Exodus 21:10–11 ). The Qur'an , which Muslims believe was revealed to Muhammad over the course of 23 years, provided guidance to the Islamic community and modified existing customs in Arab society . The Qur'an prescribes limited rights for women in marriage , divorce , and inheritance . By providing that the wife, not her family, would receive

7568-409: The oikos headed by the male kyrios . Until marriage, women were under the guardianship of their father or another male relative. Once married, the husband became a woman's kyrios . As women were barred from conducting legal proceedings, the kyrios would do so on their behalf. Athenian women could only acquire rights over property through gifts, dowry, and inheritance, though her kyrios had

7744-548: The 19th Constitutional Amendment , granting unrestricted voting rights to women nationwide. She championed a multitude of diverse women's rights and civil rights causes throughout a career that spanned more than six decades. In 1920, she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union and served as a vice president. Rankin was born on June 11, 1880, near Missoula in Montana Territory , nine years before

7920-632: The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was formed by Lucy Stone , her husband Henry Blackwell , Julia Ward Howe and their allies, many of whom had helped to create the New England Woman Suffrage Association a year earlier as part of the developing split. The bitter rivalry between the two organizations created a partisan atmosphere that endured for decades. Even after the Fifteenth Amendment

8096-982: The Hellenistic period in Athens, the philosopher Aristotle thought that women would bring disorder and evil, therefore it was best to keep women separate from the rest of the society. This separation would entail living in a room called a gynaikeion , while looking after the duties in the home and having very little exposure to the male world. This was also to ensure that wives only had legitimate children from their husbands. Athenian women received little education, except home tutorship for basic skills such as spinning, weaving, cooking, and some knowledge of money. Although Spartan women were formally excluded from military and political life, an extremely small " upper crust " enjoyed considerable status as mothers of Spartan warriors. As men engaged in military activity, women took responsibility for running estates. Following protracted warfare in

8272-580: The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Rankin returned to Montana and rose through the ranks of suffrage organizations, becoming the president of the Montana Women's Suffrage Association and the national field secretary of NAWSA. In February 1911, she became the first woman to speak before the Montana legislature, arguing in support of enfranchisement for women in her home state. In November 1914, Montana became

8448-557: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), publicly challenged NAWSA's reluctance to accept black women. The NAWSA responded in a cordial way, inviting him to speak at its next convention and publishing his speech as a pamphlet. Nonetheless the NAWSA continued to minimize the role of black suffragists. It accepted some black women as members and some black societies as auxiliaries, but its general practice

8624-612: The National College Equal Suffrage League was formed as an affiliate of the NAWSA. It had its origins in the College Equal Suffrage League, which was formed in Boston in 1900 at a time when there were relatively few college students in the NAWSA. It was established by Maud Wood Park , who later helped create similar groups in 30 states. Park later became a prominent leader of the NAWSA. By 1908, Catt

8800-651: The Republic of China was overthrown by communist guerillas led by Mao Zedong , and the People's Republic of China was founded in the same year. In May 1950 the People's Republic of China enacted the New Marriage Law to tackle the sale of women into slavery. This outlawed marriage by proxy and made marriage legal so long as both partners consent. The New Marriage Law raised the legal age of marriage to 20 for men and 18 for women. This

8976-696: The Vietnam War . In January 1968, the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, a coalition of women's peace groups, organized an anti-war march in Washington, D.C.—the largest march by women since the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 . Rankin led 5,000 participants from Union Station to the steps of the Capitol Building , where they presented a peace petition to House Speaker John McCormack . Simultaneously,

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9152-589: The World's Congress of Representative Women at the World's Columbian Exposition , which was also known as the Chicago World's Fair. Sewall served as chair and Avery as secretary of the organizing committee for the women's congress. In 1893, the NAWSA voted over Anthony's objection to alternate the site of its annual conventions between Washington and other parts of the country. Anthony's pre-merger NWSA had always held its conventions in Washington to help maintain focus on

9328-653: The city states of ancient Greece, they enjoyed a certain freedom of movement until the Archaic age . Records also exist of women in ancient Delphi , Gortyn , Thessaly , Megara , and Sparta owning land, the most prestigious form of private property at the time. However, after the Archaic age, legislators began to enact laws enforcing gender segregation, resulting in decreased rights for women. Women in Classical Athens had no legal personhood and were assumed to be part of

9504-605: The congressional election of 1916 was financed and managed by her brother Wellington, an influential member of the Montana Republican Party . She traveled long distances to reach the state's widely scattered population. Rankin rallied support at train stations, street corners, potluck suppers on ranches, and remote one-room schoolhouses. She ran as a progressive , emphasizing her support of suffrage, social welfare, and prohibition. Before her election she spoke on several occasion in favor of proportional representation . In

9680-605: The women's suffrage movement. In November 1910, Washington voters approved an amendment to their state constitution to permanently enfranchise women, the fifth state in the Union to do so. Returning to New York, Rankin became one of the organizers of the New York Woman Suffrage Party, which joined with other suffrage organizations to promote a similar suffrage bill in that state's legislature. During this period, Rankin also traveled to Washington to lobby Congress on behalf of

9856-426: The " Three Obediences " promoted daughters to obey their fathers, wives to obey their husbands, and widows to obey their sons. Women could not inherit businesses or wealth and men had to adopt a son for such financial purposes. Late imperial law also featured seven different types of divorces. A wife could be ousted if she failed to birth a son, committed adultery, disobeyed her parents-in-law, spoke excessively, stole,

10032-490: The 15th century the terminology "witchcraft" was definitely viewed as something feminine as opposed to prior years. Famous witchcraft manuals such as the Malleus Maleficarum and Summis Desiderantes depicted witches as diabolical conspirators who worshipped Satan and were primarily women. Culture and art at the time depicted these witches as seductive and evil, further fuelling moral panic in fusion with rhetoric from

10208-519: The 1890s western frontier labored side by side as equals with men, they did not have an equal political voice—nor a legal right to vote. Rankin graduated from high school in 1898. She studied at the University of Montana and, in 1902, received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Before her political and advocacy career, she explored a variety of careers, including dressmaking, furniture design, and teaching. After her father died in 1904, Rankin took on

10384-565: The 1940 race, Rankin—at age 60—defeated incumbent Jacob Thorkelson , an outspoken antisemite , in the July primary, and former Representative Jerry J. O'Connell in the general election. She was appointed to the Committee on Public Lands and the Committee on Insular Affairs . While members of Congress and their constituents had been debating the question of U.S. intervention in World War II for months,

10560-517: The 19th Amendment. Carrie Chapman Catt joined the suffrage movement in Iowa in the mid-1880s. and soon became part of the leadership of the state suffrage association. Married to a wealthy engineer who encouraged her suffrage work, she was able to devote much of her energy to the movement. She led some smaller NAWSA committees, for example serving as Chairman of the Literature Committee in 1893 with

10736-462: The 19th century. For the upper classes, it was almost 100%. In 1912, the Chinese government ordered the cessation of foot-binding. Foot-binding involved the alteration of the bone structure so that the feet were only about four inches long. The bound feet caused difficulty in movement, thus greatly limiting the activities of women. Due to the social custom that men and women should not be near each other,

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10912-463: The 4th century BC, Spartan women owned approximately between 35% and 40% of all Spartan land and property. By the Hellenistic Period, some of the wealthiest Spartans were women. Spartan women controlled their own properties, as well as the properties of male relatives who were away with the army. But despite relatively greater freedom of movement for Spartan women, their role in politics

11088-560: The AWSA and increasingly of Anthony). The executive committee recommended that AWSA delegates vote for Anthony. At the NWSA meeting, Anthony strongly urged its members not to vote for her but for Stanton, saying that a defeat of Stanton would be viewed as a repudiation of her role in the movement. Elections were held at the convention's opening. Stanton received 131 votes for president, Anthony received 90, and 2 votes were cast for other candidates. Anthony

11264-440: The AWSA. Stanton, who was in England at the time, did not attend. The meeting explored several aspects of a possible merger, including the name of the new organization and its structure. Stone had second thoughts soon afterwards, telling a friend she wished they had never offered to unite, but the merger process slowly continued. An early public sign of improving relations between the two organizations occurred three months later at

11440-648: The Christian Middle Ages, the Medieval Scandinavian law applied different laws depending on the local county law, signifying that the status of women could vary depending on which county she was living in. The 16th and 17th centuries saw numerous witch trials , which resulted in thousands of people across Europe being executed, of whom 75–95% were women (depending on time and place). The executions mostly took place in German-speaking lands, and during

11616-564: The Christianization of Europe, there was little space for women's consent for marriage and marriage through purchase (or Kaufehe ) was actually the civil norm, as opposed to the alternative marriage through capture (or Raubehe ). However Christianity was slow to reach other Baltic and Scandinavian areas with it only reaching King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark in the year 950 AD. Those living under Norwegian and Icelandic laws used marriages to forge alliances or create peace, usually without

11792-483: The Church still emphasized the importance of love and mutual counselling within marriage and prohibited any form of divorce so the wife would have someone to look after her. In overall Europe during the Middle Ages, women were inferior to men in legal status. Throughout medieval Europe, women were pressured to not attend courts and leave all legal business affairs to their husbands. In the legal system, women were regarded as

11968-505: The Church. The origin of the female "witch" myth traces back to Roman mythical night creatures known as Strix, who were thought to appear and disappear mysteriously in the night. They were also believed by many to be of transformed women by their own supernatural powers. This Roman myth itself is believed to originate from the Jewish Sabbath which described non-supernatural women who would suspiciously leave and return home swiftly during

12144-555: The Committee on Woman Suffrage and became one of its founding members. In January 1918, the committee delivered its report to Congress, and Rankin opened congressional debate on a Constitutional amendment granting universal suffrage to women. The resolution passed in the House but was defeated by the Senate. The following year—after Rankin's congressional term had ended—the same resolution passed both chambers. After ratification by three-fourths of

12320-553: The Garden of Eden. Women's inferiority also appears in much medieval writing; for example, the 1200 AD theologian Jacques de Vitry (who was rather sympathetic to women over others) emphasized female obedience towards their men and described women as slippery, weak, untrustworthy, devious, deceitful and stubborn. The church also promoted the Virgin Mary as a role model for women to emulate by being innocent in her sexuality, being married to

12496-521: The House of Representatives. Rankin began her campaign for Congress in 1939 with a tour of high schools in Montana. She arranged to speak in 52 of the first congressional district's 56 high schools to reestablish her ties to the region after years of spending much of her time in Georgia. Once again, Rankin enjoyed the political support of her well connected brother Wellington, even though the siblings had increasingly divergent lifestyles and political views. In

12672-569: The Icelandic Grágás and the Norwegian Frostating laws and Gulating laws. The paternal aunt, paternal niece and paternal granddaughter, referred to as odalkvinna , all had the right to inherit property from a deceased man. In the absence of male relatives, an unmarried woman with no son could, furthermore, inherit not only property, but also the position as head of the family from a deceased father or brother. A woman with such status

12848-456: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, galvanized the country and silenced virtually all opposition. On December 8, Rankin was the only member of either chamber of Congress to vote against the declaration of war on Japan . Hisses could be heard in the gallery as she cast her vote; several colleagues, including Rep. (later Senator) Everett Dirksen , asked her to change it to make

13024-467: The Middle Ages regarded women as weak, irrational, vulnerable to temptation, and constantly needing to be kept in check. This was reflected on the Christian culture in England through the story of Adam and Eve where Eve fell to Satan's temptations and led Adam to eat the apple. This belief was based on St. Paul , that the pain of childbirth was a punishment for this deed that led mankind to be banished from

13200-806: The Missoula Cemetery. She bequeathed her estate, including the property in Watkinsville, Georgia , to help "mature, unemployed women workers". Her Montana residence, known as the Rankin Ranch , was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The Jeannette Rankin Foundation (now the Jeannette Rankin Women's Scholarship Fund), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, awards annual educational scholarships to low-income women 35 and older across

13376-530: The NAWSA began to operate more as a political pressure group than an educational group. It won additional sympathy for the suffrage cause by actively cooperating with the war effort during World War I. On February 14, 1920, several months prior to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the NAWSA transformed itself into the League of Women Voters , which is still active. The demand for women's suffrage in

13552-406: The NAWSA's direction, but her public condemnation of the proposed amendment, expressed in terms of vehement racism, deepened fissures within the organization. Despite the rapid growth in NAWSA membership, discontent with Shaw grew. Her tendency to overreact to those who differed with her had the effect of increasing organizational friction. Several members resigned from executive board in 1910, and

13728-466: The Republican primary, Rankin received the most votes of the eight Republican candidates. In the at-large general election on November 7, the top two vote-getters won the seats. Rankin finished second in the voting, defeating Frank Bird Linderman , among others, to become the first woman elected to Congress. During her victory speech, she said, "I am deeply conscious of the responsibility resting upon me" as

13904-469: The South en route to the NAWSA convention in Atlanta. Anthony asked her old friend Frederick Douglass , a former slave, not to attend the NAWSA convention in Atlanta in 1895, the first to be held in a southern city. Black NAWSA members were excluded from 1903 convention in the southern city of New Orleans. The NAWSA executive board issued a statement during the convention that said, "The doctrine of State's rights

14080-695: The U.S. involvement in World War II . In 1937, Rankin opposed President Franklin Roosevelt's proposals to intervene on the British side against Germany and its allies, arguing that both sides wished to avoid a second European war and would pursue a diplomatic solution. She testified before multiple Congressional committees in opposition to various preparedness measures. When it became clear that her lobbying efforts were largely ineffective, Rankin resigned from her NCPW position and declared her intention to regain her seat in

14256-527: The United States was controversial even among women's rights activists in the early days of the movement. In 1848, a resolution in favor of women's right to vote was approved only after vigorous debate at the Seneca Falls Convention , the first women's rights convention. By the time of the National Women's Rights Conventions in the 1850s, the situation had changed, and women's suffrage had become

14432-648: The United States. Beginning with a single $ 500 scholarship in 1978, the fund has since awarded more than $ 1.8 million in scholarships to more than 700 women. A statue of Rankin by Terry Mimnaugh, inscribed "I Cannot Vote For War", was placed in the United States Capitol 's Statuary Hall in 1985. At its dedication, historian Joan Hoff-Wilson called Rankin "one of the most controversial and unique women in Montana and American political history." A replica stands in Montana's capitol building in Helena . In 1993, Rankin

14608-440: The absence of their brothers, do certain trades without their husbands, and widows could receive dower. In areas governed by Roman-based written laws, women were under male guardianship in matters involving property and law , with fathers overseeing daughters, husbands overseeing wives and uncles or male relatives overseeing widows. Throughout Europe, women's legal status centered around their marital status while marriage itself

14784-538: The addition of women to the electorate would help the movement achieve its other goals. Catt resigned her position after four years, partly because of her husband's declining health and partly to help organize the International Woman Suffrage Alliance , which was created in Berlin in 1904 in coordination with the NAWSA and with Catt as president. In 1904, Anna Howard Shaw , another Anthony protégé,

14960-401: The attention she had attracted in her younger days as a speaker on the national lecture circuit. Anthony was increasingly recognized as a person of political importance. In 1890, prominent members of the House and Senate were among the two hundred people who attended her seventieth birthday celebration, a national event that took place in Washington three days before the convention that united

15136-446: The authority of their husbands by transferring the authority to their male relatives. A wife's property and land also could not be taken by the husband without her family's consent but neither could the wife. This meant a woman could not transfer her property to her husband without her family or kinsman's consent either. In Swedish law, a woman would also only get half that of her brother in inheritance. Despite these legal issues, Sweden

15312-532: The book despite Anthony's strong objection that such a move was unnecessary and hurtful. The negative reaction to the book contributed to a sharp decline in Stanton's influence in the suffrage movement and to her increasing alienation from it. She sent letters to each NAWSA convention, however, and Anthony insisted that they be read even when their topics were controversial. Stanton died in 1902. The South had traditionally shown little interest in women's suffrage. When

15488-700: The college was enabled in Guangzhou, China, by a large donation from Edward A.K. Hackett (1851–1916) of Indiana, US. The college was aimed at the spreading of Christianity and modern medicine and the elevation of Chinese women's social status. During the Republic of China (1912–49) and earlier Chinese governments, women were legally bought and sold into slavery under the guise of domestic servants. These women were known as Mui Tsai . The lives of Mui Tsai were recorded by American feminist Agnes Smedley in her book Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution . However, in 1949

15664-513: The convention delegates. Stone, from the AWSA, was too ill to attend this convention and was not a candidate. Anthony and Stanton, both from the NWSA, each had supporters. The AWSA and NWSA executive committees met separately beforehand to discuss their choices for president of the united organization. At the AWSA meeting, Henry Blackwell , Stone's husband, said the NWSA had agreed to avoid mixing in side issues (the approach associated with Stanton) and to focus exclusively on suffrage (the approach of

15840-419: The courage to do it. The Gazette entirely disagrees with the wisdom of her position. But Lord, it was a brave thing! And its bravery someway discounted its folly. When, in a hundred years from now, courage, sheer courage based upon moral indignation is celebrated in this country, the name of Jeannette Rankin, who stood firm in folly for her faith, will be written in monumental bronze– not for what she did but for

16016-559: The declaration, Rankin was singled out for criticism. Some considered her vote a discredit to the suffragist movement and her authority in Congress; but others applauded it, including Alice Paul of the National Woman's Party and Representative Fiorello La Guardia of New York. Rankin used her office to push for better working conditions for laborers. On June 8, 1917, the Speculator Mine disaster in Butte left 168 miners dead. Workers called

16192-471: The development of Roman law. Stoics of the Imperial era such as Seneca and Musonius Rufus developed theories of just relationships . While not advocating equality in society or under the law, they held that nature gives men and women equal capacity for virtue and equal obligations to act virtuously, and that therefore men and women had an equal need for philosophical education. These philosophical trends among

16368-473: The early Vedic period enjoyed equal status with men in all aspects of life. Works by ancient Indian grammarians such as Patanjali and Katyayana suggest that women were educated in the early Vedic period. Rigvedic verses suggest that women married at a mature age and were probably free to select their own husbands in a practice called swayamvar or live-in relationship called Gandharva marriage . Although most women lacked political and equal rights in

16544-409: The effect of moving it into closer alignment with the AWSA. The Senate's rejection in 1887 of the proposed women's suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution also brought the two organizations closer together. The NWSA had worked for years to convince Congress to bring the proposed amendment to a vote. After it was voted on and decisively rejected, the NWSA began to put less energy into campaigning at

16720-651: The exercise of rights by women and girls, in favor of men and boys. Issues commonly associated with notions of women's rights include the right to bodily integrity and autonomy , to be free from sexual violence , to vote , to hold public office, to enter into legal contracts, to have equal rights in family law , to work , to fair wages or equal pay , to have reproductive rights , to own property , and to education . Women in ancient Sumer could buy, own, sell, and inherit property. They could engage in commerce, and testify in court as witnesses. Nonetheless, their husbands could divorce them for mild infractions, and

16896-492: The family business or to acquire literacy skills that enabled them to work as scribes and secretaries. The woman who achieved the greatest prominence in the ancient world for her learning was Hypatia of Alexandria , who taught advanced courses to young men and advised the Roman prefect of Egypt on politics. Her influence put her into conflict with the bishop of Alexandria , Cyril , who may have been implicated in her violent death in

17072-535: The federal level and more at the state level, as the AWSA was already doing. Stanton continued to promote all aspects of women's rights. She advocated a coalition of radical social reform groups, including Populists and Socialists, who would support women's suffrage as part of a joint list of demands. In a letter to a friend, Stanton said the NWSA "has been growing politic and conservative for some time. Lucy [Stone] and Susan [Anthony] alike see suffrage only. They do not see woman's religious and social bondage, neither do

17248-497: The first Montana-born woman to pass the bar exam in Montana and was an early social activist for access to birth control . As an adolescent on her family ranch, Rankin had many tasks, including cleaning, sewing, farm chores, outdoor work, and helping care for her younger siblings. She helped maintain the ranch machinery and once single-handedly built a wooden sidewalk for a building her father owned so it could be rented. Rankin later recorded her childhood observation that while women of

17424-515: The first federal social welfare program created explicitly for women and children. The legislation was enacted in 1921 but repealed eight years later, though many of its key provisions were incorporated into the Social Security Act of 1935 . In 1920, Rankin helped found the American Civil Liberties Union and served as a vice president. In 1924, Rankin bought a small farm in Georgia . She lived

17600-529: The founding congress of the International Council of Women , which the NWSA organized and hosted in Washington in conjunction with the fortieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention . It received favorable publicity, and its delegates, who came from fifty-three women's organizations in nine countries, were invited to a reception at the White House . Representatives from the AWSA were invited to sit on

17776-401: The help of Mary Hutcheson Page , another active NAWSA member. In 1895, she was placed in charge of NAWSA's Organizational Committee, where she raised money to put a team of fourteen organizers in the field. By 1899, suffrage organizations had been established in every state. When Anthony retired as NAWSA president in 1900, she chose Catt to succeed her. Anthony remained an influential figure in

17952-416: The homes of its officers. Maud Wood Park, who had been away in Europe for two years, received a letter that year from one of her co-workers in the College Equal Suffrage League who described the new atmosphere by saying, "the movement which when we got into it had about as much energy as a dying kitten, is now a big, virile, threatening thing" and is "actually fashionable now." The change in public sentiment

18128-429: The husband. Because of their legal status as citizens and the degree to which they could become emancipated, women in ancient Rome could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business. Some acquired and disposed of sizable fortunes, and are recorded in inscriptions as benefactors in funding major public works. Roman women could appear in court and argue cases, though it was customary for them to be represented by

18304-410: The idea of a federal suffrage amendment, charging that it would violate states' rights . She said that empowering federal authorities to enforce a constitutional right for women to vote in the South could lead to similar enforcement of the constitutional right of African Americans to vote there, a right that was being evaded, and, in her opinion, rightly so. Her committee was too small to seriously affect

18480-627: The initiation of U.S. military intervention in one of the two world wars . A lifelong pacifist , she was one of 50 House members who opposed the declaration of war on Germany in 1917 . In 1941, she was the sole member of Congress to vote against the declaration of war on Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor . A suffragist during the Progressive Era , Rankin organized and lobbied for legislation enfranchising women in several states, including Montana, New York, and North Dakota. While in Congress, she introduced legislation that eventually became

18656-576: The laws of nature. In doing so, they followed the Cynics , who argued that men and women should wear the same clothing and receive the same kind of education. They also saw marriage as a moral companionship between equals rather than a biological or social necessity and practiced these views in their lives as well as their teachings. The Stoics adopted the views of the Cynics and added them to their own theories of human nature, thus putting their sexual egalitarianism on

18832-425: The main representative of the suffrage movement, partly because of Anthony's ability to find dramatic ways of bringing suffrage to the nation's attention. Anthony and Stanton had also published their massive History of Woman Suffrage , which placed them at the center of the movement's history and marginalized the role of Stone and the AWSA. Stone's public visibility had declined significantly, contrasting sharply with

19008-436: The meeting and was approved unanimously without debate. The situation was different within the NWSA, where there was strong opposition from Matilda Joslyn Gage , Olympia Brown and others. Ida Husted Harper , Anthony's co-worker and biographer, said the NWSA meetings that dealt with this issue "were the most stormy in the history of the association." Charging that Anthony had used underhanded tactics to thwart opposition to

19184-570: The merger, Gage formed a competing organization in 1890 called the Woman's National Liberal Union, but it did not develop a significant following. The AWSA and NWSA committees that negotiated the terms of merger signed a basis for agreement in January, 1889. In February, Stone, Stanton, Anthony and other leaders of both organizations issued an "Open Letter to the Women of America" declaring their intention to work together. When Anthony and Stone first discussed

19360-622: The military. Women of the upper classes exercised political influence through marriage and motherhood. During the Roman Republic , the mothers of the Gracchus brothers and of Julius Caesar were noted as exemplary women who advanced the careers of their sons. During the Imperial period , women of the emperor's family could acquire considerable political power and were regularly depicted in official art and on coinage. The central core of Roman society

19536-578: The minimum age for girls was 12, while it was 14 for boys. The rate of Wergild suggested that women in these societies were valued mostly for their breeding purposes. The Wergild of woman was double that of a man with the same status in the Aleman and Bavarian legal codes. The Wergild of a woman meanwhile was triple that of a man with the same status in Salic and Repuarian legal codes for women of child-bearing age, which constituted from 12 to 40 years old. One of

19712-459: The mistreatment of women during this time. He was well known for advocating for marital equality among the sexes in his work during the 17th century. According to a study published in the American Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, the condition for women during Locke's time were as quote: National American Woman Suffrage Association Susan B. Anthony , a long-time leader in

19888-524: The most Germanic codes from the Lombard tradition legislated that women be under the control of a male mundoald , which constituted her father, husband, older son or eventually the king as a last resort if she had no male relatives. A woman needed her mundold's permission to manage property but still could own her own lands and goods. Certain areas with Visigothic inheritance laws until the 7th century were favorable to women while all other laws were not. Before

20064-625: The movement was obscured by this process, as were the roles of black and working women. Anthony, who in her younger days was often treated as a dangerous fanatic, was given a grandmotherly image and honored as a "suffrage saint." The reform energy of the Progressive Era strengthened the suffrage movement during this period. Beginning around 1900, this broad movement began at the grassroots level with such goals as combating corruption in government, eliminating child labor, and protecting workers and consumers. Many of its participants saw women's suffrage as yet another progressive goal, and they believed that

20240-677: The musical was part of the 2019 summer series at the National Music Theater Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. Although her legacy rests almost entirely on her pacifism, Rankin told the Montana Constitutional Convention in 1972 that she would have preferred otherwise. "If I am remembered for no other act," she said, "I want to be remembered as the only woman who ever voted to give women

20416-509: The national level. The AWSA cultivated an image of respectability while the NWSA sometimes used confrontational tactics. Anthony, for example, interrupted the official ceremonies at the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to present NWSA's Declaration of Rights for Women. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting, which was still illegal for women, and was found guilty in a highly publicized trial. Progress toward women's suffrage

20592-542: The night. Authors of the Malleus Maleficarum strongly established the link between witchcraft and women by proclaiming a greater likelihood for women to be addicted to "evil". The authors and inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprengerh justified these beliefs by claiming women had greater credulity, impressionability, feeble minds, feeble bodies, impulsivity and carnal natures which were flaws susceptible to "evil" behavior and witchcraft. These sorts of beliefs at

20768-594: The nomination of the National Party and finished third in the general election behind Lanstrum and incumbent Democrat Thomas J. Walsh . After leaving Congress, Rankin worked as a field secretary for the National Consumers League and as a lobbyist for various pacifist organizations. She argued for the passage of a Constitutional amendment banning child labor and supported the Sheppard–Towner Act ,

20944-403: The only woman in the nation with voting power in Congress. Her election generated considerable nationwide interest, including, reportedly, several marriage proposals. Shortly after her term began, Congress was called into an extraordinary April session in response to Germany declaring unrestricted submarine warfare on all Atlantic shipping. On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson , addressing

21120-443: The organization's membership and public approval. After the Senate decisively rejected the proposed women's suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1887, the suffrage movement had concentrated most of its efforts on state suffrage campaigns. In 1910 Alice Paul joined the NAWSA and played a major role in reviving interest in the national amendment. After continuing conflicts with the NAWSA leadership over tactics, Paul created

21296-537: The organization, however, until she died in 1906. One of Catt's first actions as president was to implement the "society plan," a campaign to recruit wealthy members of the rapidly growing women's club movement, whose time, money and experience could help build the suffrage movement. Primarily composed of middle-class women, the targeted clubs often engaged in civic improvement projects. They generally avoided controversial issues, but women's suffrage increasingly found acceptance among their membership. In 1914, suffrage

21472-419: The pacifist foreign policy that defined her congressional career. She believed, as did many suffragists of the period, that the corruption and dysfunction of the United States government resulted from a lack of women's participation. At a disarmament conference during the interwar period, she said, "The peace problem is a woman's problem." Rankin's campaign for one of Montana's two at-large House seats in

21648-420: The platform during the meetings along with representatives from the NWSA, signaling a new atmosphere of cooperation. The proposed merger did not generate significant controversy within the AWSA. The call to its annual meeting in 1887, the one that authorized Stone to explore the possibility of merger, did not even mention that this issue would be on the agenda. This proposal was treated in a routine manner during

21824-412: The possibility of merger in 1887, Stone had proposed that she, Stanton and Anthony should all decline the presidency of the united organization. Anthony initially agreed, but other NWSA members objected strongly. The basis for agreement did not include that stipulation. The AWSA initially was the larger of the two organizations, but it had declined in strength during the 1880s. The NWSA was perceived as

22000-614: The pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the letter of the law , to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work." For Arab women , Islam included the prohibition of female infanticide and recognizing women's full personhood. Women generally gained greater rights than women in pre-Islamic Arabia and medieval Europe . Women were not accorded such legal status in other cultures until centuries later. According to Professor William Montgomery Watt , when seen in such

22176-614: The property of men so any threat or injury to them was the duty of their male guardians. In Irish law, women were forbidden to act as witnesses in courts. In Welsh law, women's testimony could be accepted towards other women but not against men, but Welsh laws, specifically The Laws of Hywel Dda , also reflected accountability for men to pay child maintenance for children born out of wedlock, which empowered women to claim rightful payment. In France, women's testimony had to corroborate with other accounts or it would not be accepted. Although women were expected to not attend courts , this however

22352-537: The prophetess Anna Trapnell . English and American Quakers believed that men and women were equal. Many Quaker women were preachers. Despite relatively greater freedom for Anglo-Saxon women , until the mid-19th century, writers largely assumed that a patriarchal order was a natural order that had always existed. This perception was not seriously challenged until the 18th century when Jesuit missionaries found matrilineality in native North American peoples. The philosopher John Locke opposed marital inequality and

22528-497: The proposed Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which would enfranchise African American men. Leaders of the women's movement were dismayed that it would not also enfranchise women. Stanton and Anthony opposed its ratification unless it was accompanied by another amendment that would enfranchise women. Stone supported the amendment. She believed that its ratification would spur politicians to support

22704-689: The proposed suffrage amendment to the Constitution was rejected by the Senate in 1887, it received no votes at all from southern senators. This indicated a problem for the future because it was almost impossible for any amendment to be ratified by the required number of states without at least some support from the South. In 1867, Henry Blackwell proposed a solution: convince southern political leaders that they could ensure white supremacy in their region by enfranchising educated women, who would predominantly be white. Blackwell presented his plan to politicians from Mississippi , who gave it serious consideration,

22880-438: The resolution unanimous—or at very least, to abstain—but she refused. "As a woman I can't go to war," she said, "and I refuse to send anyone else." After the vote, a crowd of reporters pursued Rankin into a cloakroom. There, she was forced to take refuge in a phone booth until Capitol Police arrived to escort her to her office, where she was inundated with angry telegrams and phone calls. One cable from her brother read, "Montana

23056-611: The responsibility of caring for her younger siblings. At the age of 27, Rankin moved to San Francisco to take a job in social work, a new and developing field. Confident that she had found her calling, she enrolled in the New York School of Philanthropy in New York City from 1908 to 1909. After a brief period as a social worker in Spokane, Washington , Rankin moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington , and became involved in

23232-531: The right to dispose of a woman's property. Athenian women could only enter into a contract worth less than the value of a " medimnos of barley" (a measure of grain), allowing women to engage in petty trading. Women were excluded from ancient Athenian democracy , both in principle and in practice. Slaves could become Athenian citizens after being freed, but no woman ever acquired citizenship in ancient Athens. In classical Athens women were also barred from becoming poets, scholars, politicians, or artists. During

23408-559: The right to vote." Women%27s rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others, they are ignored and suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against

23584-435: The rights to purchase, own, sell, and inherit property. The Bible guarantees women the right to sex with their husbands and orders husbands to feed and clothe their wives. Breach of these Old Testament rights by a polygamous man gave the woman grounds for divorce: "If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she

23760-502: The ruling elite are thought to have helped improve the status of women under the Empire. Rome had no system of state-supported schooling, and education was available only to those who could pay for it. The daughters of senators and knights seem to have regularly received a primary education (for ages 7 to 12). Regardless of gender, few people were educated beyond that level. Girls from a modest background might be schooled in order to help with

23936-414: The same rights under the law as a man, however rightful entitlements depended upon social class . Landed property descended in the female line from mother to daughter, and women were entitled to administer their own property. Women in ancient Egypt could buy, sell, be a partner in legal contracts , be executors in wills and witnesses to legal documents, bring court action, and adopt children. Women during

24112-516: The seventh state to grant women unrestricted voting rights. Rankin coordinated the efforts of a variety of grassroots organizations to promote her suffrage campaigns in New York and Montana (and later in North Dakota as well). Later, she would draw from the same grassroots infrastructure during her 1916 congressional campaign. Rankin later compared her work in the women's suffrage movement to promoting

24288-584: The split to the Woman's Journal , a weekly newspaper she launched in 1870 to serve as voice of the AWSA. By the 1880s, the Woman's Journal had broadened its coverage and was seen by many as the newspaper of the entire movement. The suffrage movement was attracting younger members who were impatient with the continuing division, seeing the obstacle more as a matter of personalities than principles. Alice Stone Blackwell , daughter of Lucy Stone, said, "When I began to work for

24464-400: The split. In a letter to suffragist Antoinette Brown Blackwell , she suggested the creation of an umbrella organization of which the AWSA and the NWSA would become auxiliaries, but that idea did not gain supporters. In November 1887, the AWSA annual meeting passed a resolution authorizing Stone to confer with Anthony about the possibility of a merger. The resolution said the differences between

24640-564: The states, it became the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . During Rankin's term, Montana's state legislature voted to replace the state's two at-large Congressional seats with two single-member districts. With little chance of reelection in the overwhelmingly Democratic western district, Rankin chose instead to run for the Senate in 1918 . After losing the Republican primary to physician Oscar M. Lanstrum, she accepted

24816-446: The stories about shieldmaidens are unconfirmed, but some archaeological finds such as the Birka female Viking warrior may indicate that at least some women in military authority existed. A married woman could divorce her husband and remarry. It was also socially acceptable for a free woman to cohabit with a man and have children with him without marrying him, even if that man was married;

24992-401: The suffrage movement, was the dominant figure in the newly formed NAWSA. Carrie Chapman Catt , who became president after Anthony retired in 1900, implemented a strategy of recruiting wealthy members of the rapidly growing women's club movement, whose time, money and experience could help build the suffrage movement. Anna Howard Shaw 's term in office, which began in 1904, saw strong growth in

25168-516: The territory became a state, to school teacher Olive ( née Pickering) and Scottish-Canadian immigrant John Rankin, a wealthy mill owner. She was the eldest of six children, including five sisters (one of whom died in childhood) and a brother, Wellington , who became Montana's attorney general and later, a justice on the Montana Supreme Court . One of her sisters, Edna Rankin McKinnon , became

25344-402: The time could send female hermits or beggars to trials just for offering remedies or herbal medicine. This set of developed myths eventually lead to the 16–17th century witch trials which found thousands of women burned at the stake. By 1500, Europe was divided into two types of secular law. One was customary law, which was predominant in northern France, England and Scandinavia, and the other

25520-454: The two associations had "been largely removed by the adoption of common principles and methods." Stone forwarded the resolution to Anthony along with an invitation to meet with her. Anthony and Rachel Foster , a young leader of the NWSA, traveled to Boston in December 1887, to meet with Stone. Accompanying Stone at this meeting was her daughter Alice Stone Blackwell , who also was an officer of

25696-412: The two suffrage organizations. Anthony and Stanton pointedly reaffirmed their friendship at this event, frustrating opponents of merger who had hoped to set them against one another. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was created on February 18, 1890, in Washington by a convention that merged the NWSA and the AWSA. The question of who would lead the new organization had been left to

25872-532: The way she did it. Three days later, a similar war declaration against Germany and Italy came to a vote; Rankin abstained. With her political career effectively over, she did not run for reelection in 1942. Asked years later if she ever regretted her action, Rankin replied, "Never. If you're against war, you're against war regardless of what happens. It's a wrong method of trying to settle a dispute." John F. Kennedy would write about Rankin's decisions, "Few members of Congress have ever stood more alone while being true to

26048-654: The women of China were reluctant to be treated by male doctors of Western Medicine. This resulted in a tremendous need for female doctors of Western Medicine in China. Thus, female medical missionary Mary H. Fulton (1854–1927) was sent by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to found the first medical college for women in China. Known as the Hackett Medical College for Women (夏葛女子醫學院),

26224-556: The women's say or consent. However divorce rights were permitted to women who suffered physical abuse but protections from harm were not given to those termed "wretched" women such as beggars, servants and slave women. Having sex with them through force or without consent usually had no legal consequence or punishment. During the Viking Age , women had a relatively free status in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, illustrated in

26400-457: The year 415 at the hands of a Christian mob. Since Byzantine law was essentially based on Roman law, the legal status of women did not change significantly from the practices of the 6th century. But the traditional restriction of women in public life as well as the hostility against independent women still continued. Greater influence of Greek culture contributed to strict attitudes about women's roles being domestic instead of being public. There

26576-435: The young women in either association, hence they may as well combine". Stanton, however, had largely withdrawn from the day-to-day activity of the suffrage movement. She spent much of her time with her daughter in England during this period. Despite their different approaches, Stanton and Anthony remained friends and co-workers, continuing a collaboration that had begun in the early 1850s. Stone devoted most of her life after

26752-548: Was Roman-based written law, which was predominant in southern France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Customary laws favoured men more than women. For example, inheritance among the elites in Italy, England, Scandinavia and France was passed on to the eldest male heir. In all of the regions, the laws also gave men substantial powers over the lives, property and bodies of their wives. However, there were some improvements for women as opposed to ancient custom; for example, they could inherit in

26928-506: Was a dramatic growth in all-female social reform organizations, such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the largest women's organization in the country. In a major boost for the suffrage movement, the WCTU endorsed women's suffrage in the late 1870s on the grounds that women needed the vote to protect their families from alcohol and other vices. Anthony increasingly began to emphasize suffrage over other women's rights issues. Her aim

27104-454: Was also a growing trend of women who were not prostitutes, slaves or entertainers to be entirely veiled. Like previous Roman law, women could not be legal witnesses, hold administrations or run banking but they could still inherit properties and own land. As a rule, the influence of the church was exercised in favor of the abolition of the disabilities imposed by the older law upon celibacy and childlessness, of increased facilities for entering

27280-477: Was an essential part of countryside land reform as women could no longer legally be sold to landlords. The official slogan was "Men and women are equal; everyone is worth his (or her) salt". Both before and during biblical times, the roles of women in society were severely restricted. Nonetheless, in the Bible, women are depicted as having the right to represent themselves in court, the ability to make contracts, and

27456-539: Was elected president of the NAWSA, serving more years in that office than any other person. Shaw was an energetic worker and a talented orator. Her administrative and interpersonal skills did not match those that Catt would display during her second term in office, but the organization made striking gains under Shaw's leadership. In 1906, southern NAWSA members formed the Southern Woman Suffrage Conference with Blackwell's encouragement. Although it had

27632-635: Was elected to the position that she had in practice been occupying all along. Stone, who died in 1893, did not play a major role in the NAWSA. The movement's vigor declined in the years immediately after the merger. The new organization was small, having only about 7000 dues-paying members in 1893. It also suffered from organizational problems, not having a clear idea of, for example, how many local suffrage clubs there were or who their officers were. In 1893, NAWSA members May Wright Sewall , former chair of NWSA's executive committee, and Rachel Foster Avery , NAWSA's corresponding secretary, played key roles in

27808-665: Was elected vice president at large with 213 votes, with 9 votes for other candidates. Stone was unanimously elected chair of the executive committee. As president, Stanton delivered the convention's opening address. She urged the new organization to concern itself with a broad range of reforms, saying, "When any principle or question is up for discussion, let us seize on it and show its connection, whether nearly or remotely, with woman's disfranchisement." She introduced controversial resolutions, including one that called for women to be included at all levels of leadership within religious organizations and one that described liberal divorce laws as

27984-491: Was encouraged by the state. By 27–14 BCE the ius tritium liberorum ("legal right of three children") granted symbolic honors and legal privileges to a woman who had given birth to three children and freed her from any male guardianship. In the earliest period of the Roman Republic, a bride passed from her father's control into the "hand" (manus) of her husband. She then became subject to her husband's potestas , though to

28160-516: Was endorsed by the General Federation of Women's Clubs , the national body for the club movement. To make the suffrage movement more attractive to middle- and upper-class women, the NAWSA began to popularize a version of the movement's history that downplayed the earlier involvement of many of its members with such controversial issues as racial equality, divorce reform, working women's rights and critiques of organized religion. Stanton's role in

28336-493: Was given to bouts of jealousy, or suffered from an incurable or loathsome disease or disorder. But there were also limits for the husband – for example, he could not divorce if she observed her parents-in-law's mourning sites, if she had no family to return to, or if the husband's family used to be poor and since then had become richer. Confucian thinking relegated women in China to subordinate roles and foot binding left them homemakers. About 45% of Chinese women had bound feet in

28512-465: Was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame . In 2004, peace activist Jeanmarie Simpson produced and starred in the one-woman play A Single Woman , based on the life of Rankin, to benefit peace organizations. Simpson also starred in a film adaptation that was directed and produced by Kamala Lopez , narrated by Martin Sheen , and featuring music by Joni Mitchell . Opera America commissioned

28688-417: Was largely ahead and much superior in its treatment towards women than most European countries. Medieval marriages among the elites were arranged in a way that would meet the interests of the family as a whole. Theoretically a woman needed to consent before a marriage took place and the Church encouraged this consent to be expressed in present tense and not future. Marriage could also take place anywhere and

28864-442: Was not always true. Sometimes, regardless of expectations, women did participate and attend court cases and court meetings. But women could not act as justices in courts, be attorneys or members of a jury, or accuse another person of a felony unless it was the murder of her husband. For the most part, the best thing a woman could do in medieval courts was to observe the legal proceedings taking place. Swedish law protected women from

29040-481: Was once again at the forefront of activity. She and her co-workers developed a detailed plan to unite the various suffrage associations in New York City (and later in the entire state) in an organization modeled on political machines like Tammany Hall . In 1909, they founded the Woman Suffrage Party (WSP) at a convention attended by over a thousand delegates and alternates. By 1910, the WSP had 20,000 members and

29216-417: Was ratified in 1870, differences between the two organizations remained. The AWSA worked almost exclusively for women's suffrage while the NWSA initially worked on a wide range of issues, including divorce reform and equal pay for women . The AWSA included both men and women among its leadership while the NWSA was led by women. The AWSA worked for suffrage mostly at the state level while the NWSA worked more at

29392-416: Was referred to as ringkvinna , and she exercised all the rights afforded to the head of a family clan, such as the right to demand and receive fines for the slaughter of a family member, unless she married, by which her rights were transferred to her husband. After the age of 20, an unmarried woman, referred to as maer and mey , reached legal majority, had the right to decide her place of residence, and

29568-484: Was reflected in efforts to win suffrage at the state level. In 1896, only four states, all of them in the West, allowed women to vote. From 1896 to 1910, there were six state campaigns for suffrage, and they all failed. The tide began to turn in 1910 when suffrage was won in the state of Washington, followed by California in 1911, Oregon, Kansas and Arizona in 1912, and others afterwards. In 1912, W. E. B. Du Bois , president of

29744-483: Was regarded as her own person before the law. An exception to her independence was the right to choose a marriage partner, as marriages were normally arranged by the clan. Widows enjoyed the same independent status as unmarried women. Women had religious authority and were active as priestesses ( gydja ) and oracles ( sejdkvinna ); within art as poets ( skalder ) and rune masters ; and as merchants and medicine women. They may also have been active within military office:

29920-506: Was slow in the period after the split, but advancement in other areas strengthened the underpinnings of the movement. By 1890, tens of thousands of women were attending colleges and universities, up from zero a few decades earlier. There was a decline in public support for the idea of "woman's sphere", the belief that a woman's place was in the home and that she should not be involved in politics. Laws that had allowed husbands to control their wives' activities had been significantly revised. There

30096-663: Was the pater familias or the male head of the household who exercised his authority over all his children, servants, and wife. Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will. Similar to Athenian women, Roman women had a guardian or as it was called "tutor" who managed and oversaw all her activity. This tutelage had limited female activity but by the first century to sixth century BCE, tutelage became very relaxed and women were accepted to participate in more public roles such as owning and managing property or acting as municipal patrons for gladiator games and other entertainment activities Childbearing

30272-457: Was the biggest factor in restricting women's autonomy. Custom, statute and practice not only reduced women's rights and freedoms but prevented single or widowed women from holding public office on the justification that they might one day marry. According to English Common Law , which developed from the 12th century onward, all property which a wife held at the time of marriage became a possession of her husband. Eventually, English courts forbade

30448-435: Was the same as Athenian women. Plato acknowledged that extending civil and political rights to women would substantively alter the nature of the household and the state. Aristotle , who had been taught by Plato, denied that women were slaves or subject to property, arguing that "nature has distinguished between the female and the slave", but he considered wives to be "bought". He argued that women's main economic activity

30624-601: Was to educate the public about suffrage and the practical details of political activity at the local level. The political settlements established by the WSP included suffrage schools that provided training in public speaking to suffrage organizers. Public sentiment toward the suffrage movement improved dramatically during this period. Working for suffrage came to be seen as a respectable activity for middle-class women. By 1910, NAWSA membership had jumped to 117,000. The NAWSA established its first permanent headquarters that year in New York City, previously having operated mainly out of

30800-434: Was to turn such requests politely away. This was partly because attitudes of racial superiority were the norm among white Americans of that era, and partly because the NAWSA believed it had little hope of achieving a national amendment without at least some support from southern states that practiced racial segregation . NAWSA's strategy at that point was to gain suffrage for women on a state-by-state basis until it achieved

30976-424: Was to unite the growing number of women's organizations in the demand for suffrage even if they did not support other women's rights issues. She and the NWSA also began placing less emphasis on confrontational actions and more on respectability. The NWSA was no longer seen as an organization that challenged traditional family arrangements by supporting, for example, what its opponents called "easy divorce". All this had

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