Kathryn Morrison (May 22, 1942 – June 30, 2013) was an American educator and Democratic Party politician who was the first woman to be elected to serve in the Wisconsin Senate. Morrison was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and graduated from Madison East High School. Morrison was elected November 1974, seated January 1975 and served one term representing the 17th District.
After leaving the Wisconsin State Senate Morrison pursued a career in health care administration with the United States Government, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the March of Dimes. She published about the topic of health care economics. Morrison had a BA and MBA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Early life
Kathryn Morrison was born in Madison to parents Gould E. and Geraldine D. Morrison. She went through the Madison public school system, where she attended Lowell Grade School and Madison East High School. She decided to stay local for her higher education and earned her bachelor's and her master's degree in business administration both at UW-Madison, where she earned her M.B.A. in 1965.
Early activism
At the time Morrison was elected to a seat in the Wisconsin Senate, she was an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. In the book, What Two Can Do: Sam & Mandy Stellman's crusade for social justice, the author discuss the events and political environment that led to Morrisons's decision to run for the Senate seat. Morrison was active in various progressive women's movements throughout the state, working closely with Mandy Stellman on numerous issues that plagued the state, including supporting the change to the language in Wisconsin state statutes and legislation to make them gender neutral. Hearings were held on October 19, 1973, to address this issue, and the committee was chaired by State Senator Gordon Roseleip, who Morrison would later run against and then defeat. Roseleip belittled Stellman and was against any attempts to change the terminology. The bill eventually got out of committee and passed by a wide margin, but that was one of many examples of Senator Roseleip fighting against any advancements of women in the state and politics. After Stellman's negative encounter with Roseleip in the committee hearings, Stellman and some of her esteemed peers in the women's rights movement, such as Gene Boyer, Midge Miller, Mary Lou Muntz, Barbara Ulichny, and Morrison, were eating at a restaurant on State Street to regroup after the difficult hearings. Their frustration with Roseleip led to their desire to rid him from office, and these women helped create the spark that would lead to Morrison later running for office. When she went back to the capitol to lobby for various women's rights issues, it was her looking at the male legislators and realizing that she could do it too. Watching the men legislate and hearing the encouragement from several of her peers provided Morrison with the confidence to run for state office to be the first female state senator.