Sometimes synchronicity happens
I'm not sure why, but I was wondering just who the first women in Congress were this morning. I can't remember the train of thought that led to that question. It flashed in my brain, and I made a mental note to do some research later--one of the millions of research topics filed in some inaccessable corner of my mind. I rarely ever find that list again when I am bored and have access to teh internets.
Then synchronicity happened. I stumbled across a name referenced somewhere; Jeanette Rankin.
Daily Kos quotes a WSJ article about Brian Sweitzer:
Whoa, hold up a second! She was elected to the House of Representatives before women were even allowed to vote? But wait! There's more!
Miss Rankin (I'm adhering to period forms of salutations here; She would not have used "Ms." in her time frame, and may not have approved of it.) was a Republican, albeit she advocated for programs that would have been called Socialist today.
Take, for example, the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act of 1921. In an era when women were giving birth in their homes with the assistance of female neighbors in some cases, or if they were lucky with the assistance of a skilled midwife, infant mortality rates were high. Jeanette Rankin advocated for public funding for clinics and education on prenatal health and childbirth.
She's a fascinating look at the history of women in politics in America. I recommend looking her up.
Then synchronicity happened. I stumbled across a name referenced somewhere; Jeanette Rankin.
Daily Kos quotes a WSJ article about Brian Sweitzer:
Red, blue or purple--color-coding Montana's patterns of voting is just too simplistic, and [Montana Democratic Governor] Brian Schweitzer fits the non-conformist mold to a T. A prosperous farmer/rancher from the area of Whitefish in the tony Flathead Valley country, Mr. Schweitzer cultivates a well-spoken, gun-owning, dog-loving, native-ritual-doing, shot-of-whiskey-drinking true-west style somewhere between that of Jeanette Rankin (a famously antiwar liberal Republican elected to the U.S. Congress before women's suffrage was passed) and Mike Mansfield (the conservative Democrat senator and former ambassador to Japan whose voting record, taken as a whole, was more liberal than that of George McGovern)
Whoa, hold up a second! She was elected to the House of Representatives before women were even allowed to vote? But wait! There's more!
Miss Rankin (I'm adhering to period forms of salutations here; She would not have used "Ms." in her time frame, and may not have approved of it.) was a Republican, albeit she advocated for programs that would have been called Socialist today.
Take, for example, the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act of 1921. In an era when women were giving birth in their homes with the assistance of female neighbors in some cases, or if they were lucky with the assistance of a skilled midwife, infant mortality rates were high. Jeanette Rankin advocated for public funding for clinics and education on prenatal health and childbirth.
She's a fascinating look at the history of women in politics in America. I recommend looking her up.
posted by Jean Dudley at 9:18 AM
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