Meet-the-Author Recording with Gretchen Woelfle

A Take-Charge Girl Blazes a Trail to Congress: The Story of Jeannette Rankin |

Gretchen Woelfle introduces and shares some of the backstory for creating A Take-Charge Girl Blazes a Trail to Congress: The Story of Jeannette Rankin.

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G. Woelfle: Hello, I'm Gretchen Woelfle, and I'm the author of A Take-Charge Girl Blazes A Trail to Congress, the story of Jeannette Rankin, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon. Today, more than 100 women serve in the US Congress, and we don't think it's odd that they're there, but that wasn't always true. For a long time, women couldn't even vote, and even after all of them got the vote in 1920, most people thought women weren't smart enough or tough enough for the fierce world of politics. Not Jeannette Rankin. She was bold. She was smart. She was determined to get what she wanted. She is such a great role model for children with big ideas, and I want them to know her story. Jeannette Rankin grew up in Montana, which bred independent take-charge girls. She took care of her five younger siblings, but she didn't want marriage and children for herself.

When she visited San Francisco and volunteered in a settlement house, she found her life's goal, to improve the lives of poor children and their families, so she became a social worker, but she found she couldn't do enough. She saw we needed laws and social programs to ease the problems of poverty, and men in power didn't seem to care about that. If women could elect their leaders, things might change.

Jeannette spent four years crisscrossing the country, giving thousands of speeches and organizing women with one message, "We deserve the right to vote." Finally, in 1914, Montana men voted to give Montana women the right to vote. Then Jeannette had her most radical idea yet, women shouldn't only vote to elect congressmen, they should run for Congress themselves. In 1916, Jeannette did just that.

Here's an excerpt from my book.

Jeannette Rankin became the first congresswoman ever. Rivers of mail flooded in. Rowdy reporters rushed to Montana and demanded a speech. An auto company offered her a new car. A toothpaste company promised her $5,000 to smile in their ads. Not a chance.

When she finally spoke, she lambasted congressmen who had voted to spend $300,000 to study food for hogs and only $30,000 to study the needs of children. She said, "If the hogs of the nation are 10 times more important than the children, it is high time that women should make their influence felt." On April 17th, 1917, Jeannette Rankin strode into the Capitol in Washington, D. C. to take her seat in the House of Representatives. Her proud family watched from the visitors' gallery. Congressmen rushed to shake her hand. She smiled at each one. But she wasn't there for smiles and handshakes. She had work to do. "I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won't be the last," she declared. And she was right.

This Meet-the-Author Recording with Gretchen Woelfle was exclusively created in December 2022 by TeachingBooks with thanks to Calkins Creek, Astra Books for Young Readers.