University of Wisconsin scholar Gerda Lerner founded the academic field of women's history.

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

Elected by the La Crosse Area Synod in 1992, Rev. April Ulring Larson became the first female Lutheran bishop in North America and the second in the world.

Ellen Kort was Wisconsin’s first poet laureate.

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

Anita Herrera grew up in a family of migrant farm workers and devoted her career to improving education, employment, and living conditions for People of Color in Wisconsin.

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.

Carie Graves was a three-time Olympian and a medal winner for the U.S. women's rowing team.