Panel Discussion on Women & Their Successes Set for March 5 at MATC-Mequon

Posted: March 3, 2010

International Women’s Day will be celebrated a few days early with a free, public panel discussion by distinguished local women from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, March 5, in Room A131 at Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Mequon Campus, 5555 W. Highland Road. Speakers include Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson, Congresswoman Gwen S. Moore, Former Wisconsin Secretary of State Vel Phillips and community activist Ruth Zubrensky.

 

International Women’s Day is officially celebrated on March 8, to honor the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. The topic of the panel discussion is “Why We Celebrate Women & Their Successes.” Each speaker will discuss her experiences. A question-and-answer period will follow. The event is sponsored by MATC’s Liberal Arts and Sciences Division, Mequon Campus Student Services and American Federation of Teachers Local 212. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call Rose Lee at (262) 238-2251.

 

Abrahamson became the chief justice in 1996, and in that capacity serves as the administrative leader of the Wisconsin court system. She is the first woman to have served as either justice or chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and one of two justices in Wisconsin history to ever win election to the court four times. Before joining the court, she practiced law in Madison, and taught at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

 

Moore was sworn in as a representative of Wisconsin’s Fourth Congressional District in January 2005. She continually champions legislation to foster economic prosperity and promote progressive social values. Shortly after taking her seat, she was named to the House Committee

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on Small Business, and the House Committee on Financial Services, which has jurisdiction over banking, insurance and housing. During her second term, she was appointed to the House Budget Committee, which oversees the federal budget process, reviews all bills and resolutions on the budget and monitors agencies and programs funded from the budget process. She was recently reappointed to the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Budget Committee.

 

In 1952, Phillips was the first black woman to earn an L.L.B. (bachelor of law) degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She was the first woman to win a Milwaukee Common Council seat in 1956. Frequently involved in civil rights activities, Phillips introduced Milwaukee’s first open housing ordinance in 1962. In 1968, she led marches for fair housing, while riots swept the black community. That same year, Milwaukee’s open housing bill passed.

She was the first woman and the first non-white to be elected Wisconsin’s Secretary of State; the highest ranking female Wisconsin official in the 20th century.

 

Zubrensky grew up protesting social injustices at an early age. She attended Antioch College, where her roommate was Coretta Scott King. She married Len Zubrensky who became legal counsel to then Wisconsin Gov. John W. Reynolds. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, she worked for the local peace movement and better race relations. She researched school desegregation lawsuits and discrimination in the construction industry. During the ‘90s, she served on the Milwaukee Mayor’s Equal Rights Commission, and authored “A Report on Past Discrimination Against African Americans in Milwaukee, 1835-1999.”