Visuality in Woman Suffrage Discourse & the Construction of Jeannette Rankin as National Symbol of Enfranchised American Womanhood

This thesis examines the construction of Jeannette Rankin's identity as a political woman within the Woman Suffrage movement, clarifying the negotiation of women's relation to politics in American society in the decade 1909--1919. Using the primary research method of discourse analysis, this thesis examines gender ideology, visuality within early twentieth-century print media, women's political style, and national woman suffrage organizations as they intersect with the political actions of Jeannette Rankin. Revealed is how those with 'power' construct a sense of 'truth' to maintain the traditional balance of power between the sexes. Though she broke a major gender barrier when she was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1916, and became a national symbol for enfranchised American womanhood, Jeannette Rankin remained a symbol of limited power. Her experience highlights the culturally invisible and hegemonic discursive mechanisms by which women were and still are, both empowered and constrained politically.