Hillary Clinton was a rock star. Ann Richards was hot. And Molly Ivins was, well, Molly Ivins, just as she always was, even at the Governor?s Mansion in Maple Bluff. Over the past quarter-century, those women were among the keynote speakers at the annual scholarship banquet hosted by Wisconsin Women in Government WWIG, a group founded over cocktails on the Edgewater Pier in 1987 that?s celebrating its 25th anniversary next week with a banquet Thursday night at Monona Terrace. The keynote speaker is Dana Perino, who was White House press secretary for President George W. Bush.
Today, the WWIG annual dinner helps provide college scholarships for women interested in public service, as well as funds participation of high school girls in Badger Girls State. In 1999, WWIG partnered with the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison to create a public policy graduate seminar. They also have an internship ? named for the late Legislative Council director Bonnie Reese ? that gives young women experience working in government offices.