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.
But the 22-year-old had big dreams — and a major role model.
"I still to this day remember watching Geraldine Ferraro take the stage at the Democratic National Convention in 1984," Baldwin said. "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.'"
And she did, going on to become a U.S. senator.
But achievements like Baldwin's have been relatively rare in Wisconsin politics. 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.
Wisconsin has never elected a female governor. Very few cities in the state have female mayors. As recently as 1996, Wisconsin was one of just seven states that had never elected a woman to Congress.
But 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.
'There will be a woman governor someday'
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.
The difference?
Farrow had just given birth to her fifth child — another son — when she mounted her second campaign for trustee.
"I lost by a greater margin, and the margin was in the ward where the Notre Dame convent was," Farrow said. "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 decided they must have thought I should stay home with the baby."
Farrow, now 84, ultimately won a seat on the board and became its first female president. Decades later, Farrow would become Wisconsin's first female lieutenant governor.
Gender was the last thing on her mind.
"I didn't do any of that to be the first woman to do it," Farrow said. "I hoped what I was bringing to that office would justify me being there whether I was a woman or a man."
After 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. Scott McCallum asked her to replace him as lieutenant governor. McCallum's predecessor, Tommy Thompson, had just taken a job in the George W. Bush administration.
But she didn't make history immediately. Democratic Sen. 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.
"I had served in the Senate with him for 12 years," Farrow said, chuckling.
Farrow said successfully navigating the state Capitol required leaving differences aside but not forgetting them. That included convincing men she wanted to work with them.
"(Convincing them) I'm not a threat to you. I'm a companion to you," Farrow said. "I want to be a collaborator and not take over."
After McCallum lost in 2003 to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, Farrow left the Capitol. She would return to a high-profile public position a decade later when former Gov. Scott Walker appointed her to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. Farrow retired in 2017.
After leaving the lieutenant governor post, Farrow's name was floated as a candidate for governor, but she decided against a run.
Nearly two decades later, the state has not elected a woman to the highest office in the state.
"There will be a woman governor someday," Farrow said. "It will come when people are in a meeting getting things done not even realizing there was a woman in their midst."
Farrow credits her parents for this attitude, saying they convinced her she was "not limited by who you are."
"The thing I enjoyed most about my time in office is I could not only say to the young men 'you, too, can serve' — I really could say to the young women, 'you could be governor someday,'" Farrow said. "They have to realize it’s all about your own resources. Your own God-given aptitudes and abilities."
'It’s a legacy that I feel I have to continue'
When U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore got into politics, she told herself to be like one of the guys.
"I was 38 years old when I first joined the state Assembly, and I thought my mission was to not look too womanly," Moore said. "To go in there and be like the guys, you know, go in and be tough, and not get pigeonholed as a woman."
That approach didn't last very long.
"I got there on the floor," she said. "I think I was there all of five or 10 minutes before I realized, 'Look, Gwen, you're a woman, you're a black woman."
Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat, was soon on her feet objecting to bills she believed marginalized women and children.
"It was an impossible standard that I set for myself, not to be a woman in the fight. And I've been there ever since the five minutes after I hit the floor," she said. "And it's a legacy that I feel that I have to continue."
Moore, who in 2004 became Wisconsin’s first African American woman elected to Congress, says she’s proud to be part of the history of women fighting for political power.
"Every time I start feeling sorry for myself — about the dearth of voting rights, the lack of respect I think that women get in the electoral process — I think about how hard this lift was back in the day," Moore said. "Women of color stepped up with white women and joined them because this was a fight for all of them."
Moore, 68, said she has been inspired by the work of women such as journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, abolitionist and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth and suffragist Susan B. Anthony.
And by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
“She was a woman, a president's wife, and instead of her, you know, limiting her stewardship as the First Lady to choosing the china ... she really leaned into really important public policy,” Moore said. “And that inspired me.”
Vel R. Phillips, Marcia Coggs and Farrow were also role models.
"I voted against her, and from the second I voted against her I had a sick feeling in my stomach that never went away," Moore said of Farrow. "It's the vote I wish I could take back."
Moore praises Farrow as someone she could talk to, someone who was approachable — even when they didn’t agree on things.
"She was there. I was at the table with her," Moore said. "And she inspired me."
But Moore also stressed the need for more women to hold elective office, despite the fact that we now "brag" about the 127 women currently serving in Congress.
"We have a dearth of women representatives as compared to other nations, even Third World nations," she said. "We certainly have a dearth of women on the Republican side."
She urged women to "lean into their own understanding about what qualifies" someone to hold public office.
"I mean, we get thousands of messages that we aren’t qualified," she said. "But when you stop and think about our roles in the family, and in the community, we're more than qualified."
But family duties can make it difficult to think about running for governor, president or other offices, Moore said.
"There are so many women who don’t have the support of their families to do this hard work. They are still expected to carry on all of the other duties," she said. "The case with me, I mean, bringing home the bacon and frying it up in the pan and doing the laundry, and minding the kids."
“I’m proud of the fact that it was the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment. It is a shame that we’ve slipped so far from that proud legacy,” Moore said.
She vowed to "continue to fight against voter suppression" and added, "Women are the bomb. You know, we’ll start this thing and we’ll finish it."
'I had not seen myself as a leader'
Mary Burke grew up planning to follow in the footsteps of her father, Trek Bicycle Corp. co-founder Richard Burke.
"Growing up my dad was my role model, and he told me I could be anything as long as I worked hard," Burke said. "My ambition was to be a business person, just like him."
Burke, a Democrat who challenged Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2014, said she never expected to become the first female major party gubernatorial candidate in the state.
"It was as much a surprise to me as it was to most people that I found myself in a race to be governor of Wisconsin. Brought up to work hard, be independent, don't ask for help and definitely don't toot your own horn, campaigning and being the center of attention was as uncomfortable and scary as anything I had experienced."
Burke, a sixth-generation Wisconsinite, said she "would have loved to be governor."
"But the real reasons I ran were virtually no one else was stepping up to run and people encouraged me by saying I was the best chance for Democrats to win," she said. "It was the toughest decision I ever had to make."
Burke remembers meeting Democratic strategist David Axelrod and telling him of the intense pressure that she felt to run.
"His response was, 'The jockeys always need a horse,'" Burke said. "I realized only then that I had been the horse."
She says she was fueled on the campaign trail by the lessons learned from her father.
"Overcoming the intense scrutiny, criticism, the fear of not saying or doing the right thing were everyday battles. What kept me going was my strong belief that I could do anything as long as I worked hard," Burke said. "It was as difficult, frightening, and when I lost, as crushing as anything I had experienced. And yet, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
"It took me only 48 hours after the election to realize that I had nothing to be ashamed of and in the process of running discovered my true potential."
Burke, president of the Madison school board, has since gone on to found Building Brave, a nonprofit group that works to connect, inspire and empower women.
"I had not seen myself as a leader. Like most women, it was more comfortable and acceptable to play supporting roles than to lead. It was the call of duty and encouragement from others that made me realize I needed to lean in and take the leap outside my comfort zone," she said. "I feel incredibly grateful that others saw my potential when I did not see it myself."
‘I like the feel of this’
In the years since Geraldine Ferraro became the first female vice presidential candidate for a major political party and inspired Tammy Baldwin to explore public service, Baldwin has gone on to achieve many firsts.
When Baldwin was elected to represent the state’s 2nd District in 1998,after serving three terms in the state Legislature, she became not only the state's first congresswoman but also the first out lesbian elected to Congress. In 2012, she became the first openly gay person to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
But the Madison Democrat credits some of her success to a time when she wasn't the first — in 1986 when she was elected to the Dane County Board.
"I wasn’t the first openly LGBT person," Baldwin said. "I was the third. So one of the things I would say is, it helps to have role models. It helps to have people who can help show you the way."
She added: "If they hadn’t been there, would I have pursued these other opportunities that permitted me to be the first?"
Now Baldwin, 57, is the one making history. She's also led efforts to honor the suffrage movement; she led a bipartisan effort establishing a national commission to recognize the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote.
"It affords us the opportunity to look at how much we’ve accomplished, how far we have to go and how courageous those early leaders were who faced actual personal harm or personal danger by fighting for the right for women to vote."
She stressed the importance of more women getting elected to the U.S. Senate, which currently has just 25 female senators.
"Government works best when legislatures reflect the people we work for, when they look like America. That's why it’s important to increase the number of women who serve in public office. Women bring their life experience to the job and that helps inform debates, votes, and the policies that we deliver," Baldwin said.
"My experience with the women of the Senate is that they ran for office and came here to solve problems. I feel like we are guided by the idea that our job is to work together and get things done. That's what we do, both Democrats and Republicans, we work together to deliver solutions."
She pointed to work she and other female senators have done, including measures to improve access to maternal care, support unpaid family caregivers and provide mental health services for farmers.
And like Ferraro inspired her, Baldwin now inspires other young women.
One of them was a fourth-grader who, during a tour of the state Assembly chamber, tugged on Baldwin's sleeve and asked where her seat was.
"It has huge leather chairs, way bigger than anybody needs, and she jumps right into my chair, and her feet don’t even touch the ground, and she leans back and goes, 'I like the feel of this,'" Baldwin said. "I was so tickled and I thought to myself, she could see herself so comfortably there because she was watching and she saw people who looked like her on the floor."
Years later, Baldwin had the opportunity to meet Ferraro. During a speech to the LGBT caucus at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Baldwin recalled being inspired by her.
Later that day, Baldwin was approached on the convention floor.
"Somebody stops me and says, 'I was at your speech this morning and I was standing beside a young woman who had to leave before she had the opportunity to come and greet you, but she said if I saw you, I should pass along this note,'" Baldwin said. "It was her business card, and on the back it said, 'Tammy Baldwin, you are my Geraldine Ferraro.'"
"I can hardly say that without getting choked up."
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