Leading Women

Women Change The Union

As World War II changed the future, women stepped into leadership roles across the country. This was also true at UW-Madison where the campus dynamics tipped dramatically. With 3.6 women for every man on campus, women began to play a bigger role at the Union. Der Rathskeller, which had previously been open for men only, granted full access to women in 1943. The first female student was selected to run the Play Circle film projector, one of only three women with the position across the nation. By 1943, Carolyn Hall became the first elected female Union Council president.

The war was not the only time that women played a significant role in shaping the Wisconsin Union. Well before WWII, Sally Owen Marshall used her senior thesis in 1930 to pitch the idea of a craft space to the Union's then director Porter Butts. Butts supported the idea, and the Union Craftshop was formed. A year later, Owen Marshall designed the first Wisconsin Hoofers logo—a modernized version of it is still in use. Learn more about the Hoofers, a set of outdoor clubs at the Wisconsin Union at Hoofers.org. 

Fan Taylor served as director of the Wisconsin Union Theater from 1946 through 1966. In this role, she was instrumental in starting the arts administration program in the School of Business at UW-Madison, the first such program in the nation.