Florence Bascom was a trailblazing geologist and the first woman to receive a degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Japanese American nursing educator Dr. May Shiga Hornback introduced innovative televised and telephone-based nursing instruction to students across Wisconsin.

Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill was the second Native American woman in the US to earn a medical degree and was the primary caregiver for the Oneida Reservation for many years.

Nazik al-Mala’ika, a ground-breaking Iraqi poet and women’s rights advocate, was one of the first Arab poets to work in free verse instead of the classical rhyme form.

Lorena "Hick" Hickok was a journalist during the U.S. Great Depression and a close friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Edna Ferber was a short story writer, playwright, and Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist who portrayed strong women characters.

Maud Neprud Otjen was the first woman in Wisconsin to be a county superintendent of schools and encouraged women to be involved in civic life.

Nellie Wilson spent her life fighting for employment opportunities for women and was the first African American woman to hold a leadership position in her local steelworkers union.

Helen C. White was the first woman to hold a full professorship in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The first book in author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s popular LITTLE HOUSE series is about Wilder’s childhood in Wisconsin.