'(Convincing them) I'm not a threat to you. That included convincing men she wanted to work with them.

'I had served in the Senate with him for 12 years,' Farrow said, chuckling.įarrow said successfully navigating the state Capitol required leaving differences aside but not forgetting them. Chuck Chvala, then the Senate Majority Leader, held up a vote to confirm her appointment for a couple of months - saying Farrow, a Republican, wasn’t well enough known. Bush administration.īut she didn't make history immediately. Scott McCallum asked her to replace him as lieutenant governor. McCallum's predecessor, Tommy Thompson, had just taken a job in the George W. 'I hoped what I was bringing to that office would justify me being there whether I was a woman or a man.'Īfter leading Elm Grove village government, Farrow ran and won a seat in the state Assembly and then the state Senate, serving for 15 years until 2001 when former Gov. 'I didn't do any of that to be the first woman to do it,' Farrow said. Decades later, Farrow would become Wisconsin's first female lieutenant governor. I decided they must have thought I should stay home with the baby.'įarrow, now 84, ultimately won a seat on the board and became its first female president. 'They had been with me the first time, and they had left me the second time because it was almost the exact number of votes. 'I lost by a greater margin, and the margin was in the ward where the Notre Dame convent was,' Farrow said. Margaret Farrow's 27 years in public office began with two failed runs for the Elm Grove Village Board - she lost by more votes the second time she ran.įarrow had just given birth to her fifth child - another son - when she mounted her second campaign for trustee. 'There will be a woman governor someday'įormer University of Wisconsin System Regent Margaret Farrow. As recently as 1996, Wisconsin was one of just seven states that had never elected a woman to Congress.īut some women have broken through, and four of them - Baldwin, Margaret Farrow, Gwen Moore and Mary Burke - shared their thoughts on navigating a political system still dominated by men. Very few cities in the state have female mayors. Wisconsin has never elected a female governor. Though Wisconsin was the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment granting women’s suffrage 100 years ago, the state has lagged behind when it comes to electing women to political offices. senator.īut achievements like Baldwin's have been relatively rare in Wisconsin politics. 'I was watching it on a tiny TV in an efficiency apartment, and I watched her and started to tear up and I said to myself, 'I can do anything.''Īnd she did, going on to become a U.S. 'I still to this day remember watching Geraldine Ferraro take the stage at the Democratic National Convention in 1984,' Baldwin said.

Moderators will be Henrik Schatzinger, associate professor of politics and government, and Brian Smith, emeritus professor of religion, the co-directors of the Center for Politics and the People.Fifteen years before Tammy Baldwin became the first Wisconsin woman elected to Congress, she was a recent college graduate making do with a tiny Madison apartment.īut the 22-year-old had big dreams - and a major role model.

Analiese Eicher, former executive director of One Wisconsin Now and chair of the Dane County (Wisconsin) Board.Molly Beck, state government and politics reporter for the.Charlie Sykes, political commentator and editor-at-large of.The panel of experts will analyze the presidential, congressional and Wisconsin election results and explore the outlook for 2021 and beyond for both national and Wisconsin politics. The event is sponsored by the Center for Politics and the People and the Ripon College chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society. The link to register for the webinar can be accessed at /election. 12Ī post-election webinar panel will be sponsored by Ripon College at 6:30 p.m.

Molly beck milwaukee journal sentinel