Features

Celebrating Marquette women of the 1990s and 2000s

1990s

In fall 1998, only six of Marquette’s 114 full professors were women, a ratio that placed the university among the bottom 3 percent of colleges and universities in a study published by the American Association of University Professors. Were female faculty members subjected to gender discrimination and an unfavorable climate for advancement? To find out, Marquette President Robert Wild, S.J., established the President’s Taskforce on Gender Equity. A report published in 2001 identified areas for the university to address, and a task force was appointed to oversee an action plan assuring gender equity.

A Woman of the Times

Ann Marie Wick, Bus Ad ’92, revealed a telling inclination at age 7. When asked what she would do if she found $5, this young girl said she’d bank it to earn interest. How perfect is it, then, that she went on to graduate from Marquette in accounting? Wick held key management roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers before assuming her current post as vice president and director of internal audit services at Metavante Corp. She credits an internship with putting her on the path to such success. That’s one reason she continues to make an enormous personal commitment to the College of Business Administration’s Alumni Board and in particular to chairing the Mentor Program. She is president-elect of the college alumni board and chairs the board for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

News of Note

• Women moved into McCormick Hall, and the long-standing women’s dormitory, O’Donnell Hall, was converted into a men’s residence in 1990.

• In 1998, Marquette adopted excellence, faith, leadership and service as the four pillars of its mission.

• From 1996–2000, the women’s basketball team made four straight NCAA tournament appearances.

2000s

Father McCabe’s decision reverberates throughout today’s Marquette. Women make up more than 50 percent of the
student body, and women faculty hold key positions in every college. In 2007, Marquette was selected as the Mentor of the Year by TEMPO Milwaukee, the leading organization for professional women in greater Milwaukee. And at top leadership levels, prominent women sit at the table that was once the domain of men. They have served as chair of the Board of Trustees, as university trustees, as vice presidents and academic deans, and as executive director of the Office of Mission and Identity. These women leaders and others continue to steer the university into the future.

A Woman of the Times

Shital Chauhan, H Sci ’04, PT ’06, believed a medical brigade of health care specialists and students delivering services in impoverished countries was all well and good. But what happened the day the brigade left? Out of that question came a new take, a shift into a sustainable, locally supported system that endured after students returned to campus. Chauhan’s idea caught on, and Global Brigades was born. It became the largest student-led international development organization in the world, annually sending more than 4,000 volunteers from 120 university clubs to provide health, economic development, clean water and human rights solutions to more than 200,000 people in Central America.

News of Note

• In 2004, Marquette announced its first named college, the Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, to honor a university benefactress who committed a portion of her estate to support Marquette students.

• In 2006 Dr. Kathy Schleif Roth, Dent ’74, was elected first woman president of the American Dental Association.

• In 2009, for the first time in Marquette’s history, women hold deanships in three colleges: Business Administration, Communication and Nursing. A fourth woman is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Celebrating the Centennial

As part of the celebration, Marquette opened a refurbished residence hall and named it to honor the Jesuit president, Rev. James McCabe, who in 1909 caused a furor by enrolling women in the undergraduate bachelor of arts degree program at Marquette.