Who was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress?

Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress. Voters in Montana elected her to the House of Representatives in 1916, and she began her first term on March 4, 1917.

Rankin was a Republican and women’s-rights advocate from Montana. Her election came before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, so women’s voting rights still varied by state. Montana had granted women the vote in 1914, enabling Rankin’s congressional campaign there.

She served one House term from 1917 to 1919 and returned to Congress in 1941. A lifelong pacifist, Rankin voted against the declaration of war on Germany in 1917 and was the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Rankin is sometimes confused with the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate or the first woman to lead a congressional chamber. Those were separate milestones. Her achievement specifically concerns election to the national Congress, which includes the House and Senate.