Donna Shalala was the first woman to head a Big Ten university and the longest-serving secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the first female head of state of any African country.

Jewish activist Hannah Rosenthal served as a U.S. special envoy to work against antisemitism.

Vel Phillips achieved many firsts, including first woman and first African American to be elected to the statewide office of secretary of state.

Mee Moua was the first Hmong American to be elected to a state legislature in the U.S.

Kathryn "Kate" Morrison was the first woman elected to the Wisconsin State Senate.

Gwen Moore was the first African American from the state of Wisconsin to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Golda Meir was a teacher and organizer in Milwaukee before becoming Israel's first female prime minister in 1969.

Barbara Lawton, forty-third lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, was the first woman to be elected to that position.

Belle Case La Follette was the first woman to graduate from law school in Wisconsin and an outspoken advocate for women's right to vote.