First woman elected to U.S. Congress

Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1917, three years before women were guaranteed the Constitutional right to vote. Rankin, a republican, campaigned for universal suffrage, prohibition, child welfare reform, an end to child labor, and for staying out of the First World War. Rankin lost her seat in 1918, but was elected back into the House of Representatives in 1940.
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