The history of the Wisconsin Women's Network dates to an organization known as the Wisconsin Feminists Project Fund (WFPF) which was founded in 1973 to institute projects that would alleviate discrimination against women, chiefly in the areas of employment and education. Founding members included prominent Wisconsin feminists Margo House and Gene Boyer and donor Ellen O'Brien Saunders.
The fund was formed after members of the Wisconsin National Organization for Women visited Employment Service District offices throughout Wisconsin to review implementation of Affirmative Action policies. After identifying conditions that hampered equal employment for women, the NOW members negotiated with the Employment Security Division of the Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations (DILHR) for a feminist training program for governmental and private employers. WFPF was formed to carry out that training.
In 1974 Governor Patrick J. Lucey contracted with WFPF to undertake a new project: Attitudes, Women and Employment. This project was renewed twice, and it resulted in the training of over 1000 state and private employees between 1974 and 1977. In 1975 WFPF obtained private funding and the support of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women to produce a book about women in Wisconsin history, Uncommon Lives of Common Women, by Victoria Brown. In 1976 CETA funds underwrote WFPF's next project, Skilled Jobs for Women, a training program for women seeking non-traditional careers.
During the late 1970s organized feminism in Wisconsin experienced a number of setbacks, most serious of which was Governor Lee S. Dreyfus' announcement that he intended to discontinue the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women in 1979. Previously the commission had attempted to fill the need for an independent communications network and to advocate for women's issues. Its accomplishments were limited by budgetary concerns and the Legislature's desire not to fund advocacy groups. On February 2, 1979 a group of feminists representing Wisconsin's major women's organizations and civil liberties groups met in Madison to organize an independent Feminist Advocacy Network (FAN) that would assume the two functions of the Governor's Commission. Gene Boyer, who drew up the original proposal for the network, was named temporary chair. Other leaders included Kathryn F. Clarenbach, Catherine Conroy, Liesl Blockstein, Eunice Edgar, Louise Trubeck, and Margo House. In order to meet the requirements for non-profit organizations the network developed a relationship with WFPF cemented by an April 9, 1979 memoranda that made the network a beneficiary of WFPF fundraising.
By June 1979 FAN changed its name to the Wisconsin Women's Network. At this time it had twelve organization affiliates and over 100 individual subscribers. The network was formally introduced to the public on September 24, 1979. Early activities on which the network focused included the National Plan of Action drawn up by the International Women's Conference in 1977 and marital property reform. The network was governed by a board comprised of representatives of the subscribing organizations and ten members at large. The board selected the issues for network action. The network was organized into task forces to accomplish its goals; during its first year there were five task forces; by its third year there were 11. Marital property reform, which was the primary focus of the organization during its early years, was finally achieved in its fifth year. Other topics of concern included child care, economic and educational equity, health care, reproductive rights, women in criminal justice, and sexual violence. The network monitored legislation affecting women and it published Stateswoman, a legislative digest on Wisconsin women's issues.
After the formation of the Wisconsin Women's Network in 1979 WFPF entered into an agreement with the network to produce its newsletter, the Stateswoman. In 1980 WFPF changed its name to the Wisconsin Women's Education Fund (WWEF) and transformed itself into a non-profit task force within the network. Although the board of directors and core mission remained intact, the organization was overhauled to focus on educational projects including providing information on marital property reform and reproductive rights.
