Missoula woman portrays Jeannette Rankin
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March is Women’s History Month, and 2014 is the 100th anniversary of Montana women’s suffrage.
Jeannette Rankin, Montana’s first woman representative and the nation’s first woman who served in the United States Congress, is a part of that history and also a suffragette.
To honor Rankin and her beliefs, Suzette Dussault, from the Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau, spoke as Rankin when she visited Polson schools and the North Lake County Library on March 4. She returned to Polson Middle School and did eight presentations on March 5, speaking to about three quarters of the kids.
Dussault stressed Rankin’s belief that when she saw something that needed to be done, she did it.
Using words from Rankin’s speeches, Dussault spoke about the Anaconda Copper Company’s hold on Montana. The company employed a huge number of miners and other workers, and had political power and wealth. The owners of the company were not in favor of women getting the vote because they thought women would work for better working conditions for miners.
Despite that hold, a grassroots movement of Montanans got a referendum on the 1914 ballot for the vote for women. It took a two-thirds majority to pass it, but that was a moot point since there was unanimous agreement in both the house and senate.
Rankin is famous for voting “no” to United States’ entry into World War I and World War II. She was also a suffragette who worked for peace, women’s rights, against child labor and also for safer work conditions.
Not only that, but Rankin was a local woman, born near Missoula, on June 11, 1880.
LouAnne Krantz, librarian at PMS, said most of the kids did not know who Rankin was, but were drawn into her story when she sewed up a horse with a big gash because it needed to be done. She and her brother also rescued a dog from a trap by amputating his foot and then making him a wooden prosthetic.
When Dussault asked kids to stand if they would vote so their mothers could vote, they stood. Another powerful fact for the students was Rankin’s work for miners and children’s working conditions and rights, Krantz said.
Dussault came from a political family and agrees with Rankin that everyone has something to give, and there’s a lot of work to be done.
“I passionately believe in Jeanette’s message,” said Dussault.
