The records are arranged into two series: WISCONSIN WOMEN'S NETWORK records and WISCONSIN WOMEN'S EDUCATION FUND (WWEF/WFPF) records. The Wisconsin Women's Network records are subdivided into General Administrative Records and Task Force Records. The WWEF/WFPF records are arranged as Origins, Organizational Records, Ellen O'Brien Saunders Papers, and Subject Files.

The WISCONSIN WOMEN'S NETWORK RECORDS include correspondence, financial information and budgets, minutes, and information on the formation of the network and on annual meetings at which policy was decided. The background information contains the initial organization proposal drawn up by Gene Boyer, FAN minutes, several drafts of the articles of incorporation and by-laws, and a list of historic highlights and task force activities, 1980-1984.

The task force records are arranged alphabetically by name and then alphabetically by subject. Documentation variously includes action alerts, correspondence, minutes, background information, public statements and testimonies at legislative hearings, and press material. Except for a few isolated items, the majority of this subseries consists of photocopied or mimeographed material distributed to the general membership of the task force. The task force files are not true records which would have been in the hands of the various chairs, who carried out the real activities of the network, but rather mimeographed convenience copies apparently filed in the Madison office. Because of this provenance most task force records are incomplete. Most extensively represented are the files on Marital Property Reform and Reproductive Rights, although there is information on a wide range of issues concerning women and children.

The WISCONSIN WOMEN'S EDUCATION FUND RECORDS (WWEF/WFPF) are those of co-founder Ellen Saunders who was born Ellen O'Brien on June 25, 1941 in Detroit, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan and received a B.A. from Barnard College in 1963 and a master's degree in Education from Northeastern University in 1970. With her husband David Saunders, she moved to Wisconsin in 1971. Saunders worked as an executive assistant at DILHR, as well as coordinating Wisconsin NOW's State Compliance Task Force from 1972 to 1975 and serving on the WFPF board from 1973 to 1987. Saunders was also involved in the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Project, 1972-1973, studying career patterns of women in state service and compiling quarterly reports of progress. She researched and wrote publications for various state agencies including One Step at a Time: A Handbook for Office Workers in State Government, which was published by the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women (1976), and The Status of Clerical Workers: A Case for Pay Equity, which was published by the UW-Extension (1981). Saunders was a member of the state coordinating committee of the International Women's Year, and she was one of Wisconsin's delegates to the National Women's Conference in Houston in 1977. In addition, Governor Patrick J. Lucey appointed her to the Education Committee of the State Council on Affirmative Action (1976-1981) and the planning committee for the Institute on Comparable Worth in 1981. In the late 1980s Saunders left Wisconsin for Ohio where she worked on labor issues in state government. She then settled in Olympia, Washington in the early 1990s. There she headed a training and employment agency in state government.

The records of WWEF/WFPF consist of four subseries: Origins, Organizational Records, Ellen Saunders Papers, and Subject Files. These records document the administration and operation of an organization created to alleviate employment discrimination against women at the height of the national feminist movement. Throughout the series there is much correspondence and paperwork between the organization, its project staff, and various state offices and agencies that document the strong influence of state government. The papers of Ellen Saunders, co-founder of the fund, document her personal involvement in other women's events and organizations in Wisconsin. The WWEF/WFEF series documents the years from 1967 to 1990, with the richest records relating to the years 1973-1981. Copies of The Stateswoman which WFEF/WWEF published for the Wisconsin Women's Network after 1979 are available in the SHSW Library.

The Origins subseries chronicles the events leading up to the creation of WFPF. Included is detailed documentation such as resolutions, memoranda, help sheets, correspondence, reports, and a list of demands concerning the action of January 1973, in which members of Wisconsin Now visited offices throughout the state to review implementation of Affirmative Action policies. Also included are WFPF's articles of incorporation and bylaws.

The Organizational Records span the period from 1973 to 1990. This material documents the way in which the organization changed its focus over time, specifically after making the transition from its status as an autonomous agency to becoming one of several task forces of a larger group. Records include minutes, officer reports, incoming and outgoing correspondence of leaders such as Margo House and Gene Boyer, and membership lists. Miscellaneous financial reports and budgets span the period 1974-1989, but detailed general ledgers and journals are limited to 1976-1977.

The majority of the organizational records document WWEF/WFPF's three major projects: Attitudes, Women and Employment; Skilled Jobs for Women; and the publication of Uncommon Lives of Common Women. These records cover the years 1974 to 1977, the organization's most active and well publicized period. About Attitudes, Women and Employment, the organization's first project, there are proposals and contracts, three sets of correspondence, financial records, training materials, and progress reports. A thorough evaluation from 1976 summarizes the history, implementation, and success of the project. Skilled Jobs for Women is primarily documented by financial records and grant proposals. Material from the development and publication of Uncommon Lives includes research correspondence of author Victoria Brown, promotional materials, and financial records.

The Ellen Saunders Papers focus on her activities as WWEF/WFPF co-director and as a feminist active in other organizations. Unfortunately there is no material on her activities outside of the Wisconsin Women's Education Fund after 1981 and no material on her personal or professional life after leaving Wisconsin in the late 1980s. There is one folder of chronologically arranged personal papers spanning the period 1970-1980 that includes information on employment, exchanges with friends and family, and correspondence with legislators and public officials addressing their stands on various women's issues. Also well documented is Saunders' leadership in the Affirmative Action Executive Commission, the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women, the Intergovernmental Personnel Act project, the International Women's Years, the National Women's Conference, and the Institute on Comparable Worth. These papers are alphabetically arranged by project name. Of them, the Affirmative Action material is most complete, including minutes and background information on the formation of the commission. The material on the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women is limited to Saunders' collected reference material and a 1978 draft of The Status of Clerical Workers. The other projects are generally documented by administrative correspondence, reports, and financial records.

The Subject Files contain clippings and spotty reference materials on four topics related to WWEF/WFPF that interested Saunders: employment, maternity leave, equal rights legislation in Wisconsin, and women's organizations.