February 29, 2024 Marci Glaus
Wisconsin women have been making history as community builders, industry innovators, government leaders and more for centuries. Learn about some of the notable women in Wisconsin history during Women’s History Month with the PBS Wisconsin Education Wisconsin Biographies collection.
Milly Zantow
Milly Zantow changed recycling in Wisconsin and the world. When she learned about a problem facing her Sauk County community — a landfill closing much earlier than it should — she took action by focusing on recycling. At that time, no one was recycling plastics, but through her ingenuity, Zantow found a way and developed the idea for the numbering system to identify plastics for recycling.
Electa Quinney
Electa Quinney was Wisconsin’s first-known public school teacher and a notable mentor in the Mohican community. Because of the impactful time in which she lived, Quinney’s story shines a light on the broader story of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans who used non-Native and traditional Native education to preserve their ways of life.
Carrie Frost
Carrie Frost was a fly fishing entrepreneur who paved the way for other female business owners in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Even though women could not vote and in many cases could not own property, Frost created a successful manufacturing company, and she gave more than 150 Stevens Point women a chance to earn their wages at a time when they were not often able to do so.
Elizabeth Baird
Elizabeth Baird was a strong woman with fierce determination living on the Wisconsin frontier. Born a native French speaker, Baird taught herself English and worked as an interpreter in her husband’s law firm, all while operating her family’s farm and recording her…