"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. "It will come when people are in a meeting getting things done not even realizing there was a woman in their midst."įarrow credits her parents for this attitude, saying they convinced her she was "not limited by who you are." "There will be a woman governor someday," Farrow said. Nearly two decades later, the state has not elected a woman to the highest office in the state. Farrow retired in 2017.Īfter leaving the lieutenant governor post, Farrow's name was floated as a candidate for governor, but she decided against a run. Scott Walker appointed her to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. She would return to a high-profile public position a decade later when former Gov. I'm a companion to you," Farrow said. "I want to be a collaborator and not take over."Īfter McCallum lost in 2003 to Democratic Gov. "(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. 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.
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