Highlights Archives
Wisconsin Women's Success Stories
March is Women's History Month, and the spring issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History celebrates women who made Wisconsin history in two new articles about women from very different backgrounds. The first article, "An Interest in Health and Happiness Yet Untold: The Woman's Club of Madison, 1893-1917" by Mark Speltz, is the story of the club's members who used their connections to make a tangible difference for the city of Madison's children. The leadership shown by these wives and daughters of Madison's most influential leaders resulted in a proud legacy of park and playground systems — one that is largely responsible for the quality of life Madison residents have today.
When the Woman's Club of Madison was founded in 1893, there were 32 similar clubs in the state of Wisconsin, including the most prominent early club, the Woman's Club of Wisconsin, which organized in Milwaukee in 1876. These clubs fostered the voices and participation of women who would not have been allowed to speak up as individuals in the public sphere of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The second article recounts the life story of a woman from a completely different world. Anna Mae Gibson, born on a farm in Portage County, eventually became one of a select group of women who worked as sideshow tattooed ladies. In the early 1900s, when Anna Gibbons was a young wife, there were few ways for working-class women to earn income. When she married a tattoo artist and allowed herself to be tattooed, another world of opportunity opened for her. Anna's unusual choice allowed her to trade her ordinary life as a struggling working-class wife for something extraordinary — she became one of the most well-known tattooed ladies of her generation. Her story is told in full in the spring 2006 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History, "A Life of Her Own Choosing: Anna Gibbon's Fifty Years as a Tattooed Lady" by Amelia Klem.
The successes of Wisconsin women like Anna Gibbons, in her unconventional career as a tattooed lady, and the Woman's Club of Madison members, who raised their voices in the previously forbidden public sphere for the welfare of children, helped pave the way for the new lives and new accomplishments of their Wisconsin daughters.
Learn More About Wisconsin Women's History
For more stories that celebrate Wisconsin Women, see Women's Wisconsin: From Matriarchies to the New Millennium, edited by historian Genevieve G. McBride. Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, the book tells compelling stories that remind us all of the important roles women have played throughout Wisconsin History. You can also view hundreds of pictures and search thousands of pages of firsthand accounts by women in Wisconsin simply by visiting our digital collection, Turning Points in Wisconsin History. Just type "female" (minus the quotes) into the search box to find more than 80 original documents by and about Wisconsin women — and more are on the way.
:: Posted March 10, 2006
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