Wisconsin Women Making History

Before the founding of the Universities of Wisconsin Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium, there had been decades of cooperation and communication among women in higher education in Wisconsin. By 1986, every UW institution had a women’s studies program. The administrators of these programs supported each other—sharing resources and hosting semiannual meetings and conferences—thereby forming an unofficial precursor to the consortium. (A “consortium” is a collection or association of groups that work together for a common goal.)

In the mid-1980s, the UW Board of Regents, which oversees the entire University system, announced it would create “Centers of Excellence”—cross-campus teams of faculty and staff providing leadership in teaching, learning, and research in a specific subject. Women’s studies administrators saw this as an opportunity to formalize their network and get more support. A committee of administrators and the Women’s Studies Librarian-at-Large (now the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian) created a proposal for a Women’s Studies Center. While the Board of Regents approved the proposal, the state legislature decided not to fund any Centers. Still, the idea had taken hold, so the committee submitted a new version of their proposal to the UW outside of the Centers of Excellence plan. This version was also approved, with money coming from sources other than the legislature. In August 1989, the Women’s Studies Consortium officially launched.

The Consortium’s first director was Jacqueline Ross, a professor of English and founder of the UW-Platteville women’s studies program. In the early 1990s, administrative and outreach positions were created to support Ross and the Consortium. “Outreach” in this case refers both to work connecting the various women’s studies programs and to extending the programs’ impact beyond the campuses.

The first decade of the Consortium was a busy one. Some of its early work included creating an audiovisual collection of women’s studies materials housed at UW-Platteville; starting the Women and Science Program, which brought professors to UW to teach introductory STEM classes that included content on race and gender; and helping faculty incorporate the experiences of Native American women into their courses. One particular highlight was the October 1991 visit by eight feminist scholars from Russia. They toured the state, visiting each campus and meeting women’s studies instructors. The Consortium outreach position took responsibility for planning an annual conference for women’s studies students, faculty, and staff. Throughout the 1990s, the conference was hosted by different UW campuses, each with a theme highlighting an area of women’s studies research.

Ross retired in 1999. Fran Garb, who worked in university administration, served as interim director until Helen Klebesadel was hired in 2000. Klebesadel had been a faculty member at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, teaching art and gender studies. (Garb has a background in zoology and would later also serve as interim director of the Women and Science Program.) 

The new millennium brought new challenges to the Consortium—mainly due to budget cuts that reduced staffing. The assistant director position was eliminated in 2007, although longtime administrative assistant Dace Zeps continued to support the Consortium part-time until 2019. The outreach position was also eliminated, but the Consortium continued its outreach work in other ways. For instance, in 2004, it helped UW–Milwaukee host the National Women’s Studies Association annual conference. Consortium staff also developed and co-sponsored the first UW System LGBTQ Conference, held in 2006 alongside the existing women’s studies conference. These joint conferences continued through 2014.

In 2015, the Consortium became the Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium. This change aligned with those of other programs across the US that wanted their names to reflect the expanding scope of women’s studies.

Klebesedal retired in 2018. The next director hired was Stephanie Rytilahti, a former UW–Madison women’s studies lecturer who had recently completed her PhD in history at Duke University.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Wisconsin in March 2020, the Consortium canceled its annual conference. Shortly after, the Consortium and the IDEAS Alliance (previously the Women and Science Program) created the University of Wisconsin System Caregiving Task Force. The task force examined how caring for kids, elderly parents, and other family members affects UW faculty, staff, and students. They found that caregiving challenges particularly affect women and other marginalized groups and recommended policy changes to the UW administration to help address these issues.

Because of COVID-19, the Consortium held the 2021-2023 conferences and other events virtually. One highlight of the virtual programming was the Feminist Leadership Working Group. These monthly meetings allowed graduate students and newer faculty to learn from women leaders across the System how to apply feminist ideas to their work. While moving events online created challenges, it also helped expand the Consortium’s reach beyond Wisconsin, since anyone anywhere could “attend” virtually. Many of its events remain at least partially virtual to sustain this new reach.

Led by Rytilahti, the Consortium continues to support women’s, gender, and LGBTQ+ studies across the state through initiatives such as instructor professional development, defending the continued funding of programs, and improving student experiences. In April 2026, they celebrated the 50th anniversary of statewide women’s and gender studies conferences.

Many women, both within and outside the Consortium, have supported its work over the years. Some of them are listed below.

• Helen Bannan
• Ruth Bleier
• Jennifer Schuttlefield Christus
• Heidi Fencl
• Susan Friedman
• Fran Garb
• Sarah Harder
• Helen Klebesadel
• Estella Lauter
• Katharine Lyall
• Karen Merritt
• Linda Parker
• Janet Polansky
• Jacqueline Ross
• Stephanie Rytilahti
• Sue Searing
• Anne Statham
• Esther Stineman
• Karla Strand
• Marion Swoboda
• Helen Tierney
• Susan Turell
• Phyllis Holman Weisbard
• Elizabeth Zanichkowsky

LEARN MORE

Ross, Jacqueline. 2001. “Flickering Clusters.” In Flickering Clusters: Women, Science, and Collaborative Transformations, edited by Cheryl Ney, Jacqueline Ross, and Laura Stempel. University Communications. https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AHCA57WWWVMUSL8E

Ross, Jacqueline, and Susan Kahn. 1993. “Collaborating for Change: The UW System Women’s Studies Consortium.” In Women on Campus in the Eighties: Old Struggles, New Victories, edited by Marian J. Swoboda, Audrey J. Roberts, and Jennifer Hirsch. Office of Equal Opportunity Programs and Policy Studies.

Rytilahti, S., and Schuttlefield Christus, J. (2020, June 23). WGSC statement regarding caregiving recommendations for fall 2020 return to campus. UW Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium. https://consortium.gws.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/368/2020/06/WGSC-Caregiving-Recommendations-June-23-2020.pdf

The University of Wisconsin System Women’s Studies Consortium. 1999. Transforming Women’s Education: The History of Women’s Studies in the University of Wisconsin System. Office of University Publications.

Women’s & Gender Studies Consortium. https://consortium.gws.wisc.edu/

Profile researched and written by Kelsey Foster, Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian.

Thank you to Helen Klebesedal and Stephanie Rytilahti for their assistance.