Best known for her work on gender, race, and class, University of Wisconsin graduate bell hooks was a prolific writer, speaker, and scholar.

Mildred Fish-Harnack was the only American woman to die by Adolf Hitler's direct order for spying on Germany during World War II.

Sarah Harder started the women's studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and built many women's coalitions in Wisconsin and nationally.

Historian Camille Guérin-Gonzales, who directed the UW–Madison’s Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program, was devoted to justice for working people.

A student activist in the 1960s, Ann D. Gordon became a history professor and an important scholar of women’s suffrage in the U.S.

Dorothy "Aunt Dot" Davids was a respected Native American educator in Wisconsin and an author, speaker, community organizer, and activist for peace and justice.

Ada Deer was the first woman to head the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the first Native American woman from Wisconsin to run for U.S. Congress.

Carin Clauss was the first woman Solicitor in the U.S. Department of Labor.

Kathryn "Kay" Clarenbach was a founding member and the first chair of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and won gains for women's rights in state and federal politics.

Author and activist Ellen Bravo has fought tirelessly for policies that support working women and their families.