Women’s Work

Most Montanans know that Jeannette Rankin was elected the first woman to the U.S. Congress in 1916. Fewer realize that the 1916 election (the first after Montana women won the franchise) also saw the election of May Trumper as state superintendent of public instruction and Emma Ingalls (R, Flathead County) and Maggie Smith Hathaway (D, Ravalli County) as representatives to the Montana House of Representatives. Senator Diane Sands explores the impact these women’s participation in state politics had on our state.