A Lone Woman's Voice
Jeannette Rankin:A Political Woman
By James J. Lopach and Jean A. Luckowski
This review I found sounds a bit biased, but I still think it would be worth a read. It's probably out of print.
It is interesting to note the political crosscurrents that ran though Rankin's life and times. Suffrage was a kind of empty vessel into which advocates
of all political stripes poured their hopes and aspirations. Sometimes the movement was aligned with conservative causes such as temperance and other efforts to counterbalance the violent, corrupt, or philandering male. As one Rankin supporter in Wisconsin put it in a campaign song:
She will win for us the fight
She will win for us the battle Johnny Booze be put to flight
Long will ring her praise a
Other times, suffrage was embraced by radicals who thought women's votes would "break the alleged control of the privileged class." Still other times, it was a convenient mask for racism, as when suffragists assured Southerners that the votes of white women would be a useful counterbalance to those of blacks.
Rankin herself saw suffrage as inextricably linked to peace; she believed women were the true agents of social change and the only hope for ending war. During World War II a frustrated Rankin told a friend, "I am going to live as peacefully as I can, and let the world kill off the men." iinteresting to note the political crosscurrents that ran though Rankin's life and times. Suffrage was a kind of empty vessel into which advocates
of all political stripes poured their hopes and aspirations. Sometimes the movement was aligned with conservative causes such as temperance and other efforts to counterbalance the violent, corrupt, or philandering male. As one Rankin supporter in Wisconsin put it in a campaign song:
She will win for us the fight
She will win for us the battle Johnny Booze be put to flight
Long will ring her praise and glory
Other times, suffrage was embraced by radicals who thought women's votes would "break the alleged control of the privileged class." Still other times, it was a convenient mask for racism, as when suffragists assured Southerners that the votes of white women would be a useful counterbalance to those of blacks.
Rankin herself saw suffrage as inextricably linked to peace; she believed women were the true agents of social change and the only hope for ending war. During World War II a frustrated Rankin told a friend, "1am going to live as peacefully as I can, and let the world kill off the men."
Rankin's unwavering pacifism also led her to strange alliances. The champion of equality seemed not to see the irony in her enthusiastic backing of Charles Lindbergh, whose opposition to World War II was informed by nativism and anti-Semitism. Ultimately, for Rankin, fighting war trumped fighting discrimination.
On the enduring question of whether the presence of women in public life fundamentally changes the debate, the whole of Rankin's life answers "Yes." Rankin was not, like Margaret Thatcher or Golda Meir, a political woman bent on proving her bonafides with militaristic rhetoric. (Even former congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, who is referenced favorably in the book, thought it necessary to serve a stint on the Armed Services Committee before she could run for president.) Rankin, by contrast, was what the authors call a "cultural feminist," at least in her public life, believing that women speak in a distinct and valuable voice, one that men can never duplicate.
Eighty-six years after women achieved suffrage, just fifteen percent of the US Congress is female. Electing more women to public office is not merely a matter of simple equity. As Jeanette Rankin proved, it can mean the difference between war and peace-between life and death.
Renee Loth is the editorial page editor of the Boston Globe.
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