For four decades, the Women’s Fund has worked to advance gender equity. On Wednesday, May 6, we marked the milestone together as a community with two films, conversation, food, and a vision of 2040.
Evening at a Glance
- 4 p.m. Arrival (take note of the WF movie posters on the north wall as you enter! You may be fooled because they are inspired by real movie posters, one from each decade.)
- 4:15-5:30 p.m. Screening of two films (with intermission)
- 5:30-7 p.m. Anniversary program, including a 4th grader’s vision of the year 2040
- 7-8 p.m. Celebratory reception with hors d’oeuvres, four cakes, anniversary merch, and more!
About Film #1:
Women’s Voices: The Gender Gap (1984, short documentary, 16 minutes) A look back at the growing divide in voting patterns between men and women that became undeniable by the mid-1980s, the era the Women’s Fund was launched.
About Film #2:
Most Dangerous Women: Women of the West (2022, pilot episode, 35 minutes) Throughout history, women changemakers have been labeled “dangerous” and “subversive,” and time has proven their vision right. This pilot episode follows the women of Wyoming and the broader West, where women first won the right to vote and hold public office, establishing themselves as leaders who would help shape the national fight for suffrage. Directed by Janet Fitch, the film received early grant support from the Women’s Fund. After Janet’s unexpected passing, WF funded the archiving of her work so it could remain freely available to the public at newmoononline.org.
click here to DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM
click here to DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION SLIDES
click here to read JOANNE’S NARRATIVE
FOUR DECADES: A STORY OF THE WOMEN’S FUND
click here to hear
REMARKS FROM MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON
click here to read LAJ’S REMARKS
click here to read DATA ABOUT WOMEN IN FILM
click here to read BEA’S VISION FOR 2040
click here to VIEW PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK
click here to DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM
click here to DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION SLIDES
click here to read JOANNE’S NARRATIVE
FOUR DECADES: A STORY OF THE WOMEN’S FUND
click here to hear
REMARKS FROM MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON
click here to read LAJ’S REMARKS
click here to read LAJ’s REMARKS
click here to read DATA ABOUT WOMEN IN FILM
click here to read BEA’S VISION FOR 2040
click here to VIEW PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK
Four movie posters.
Four chapters of a forty-year story.
Each one was reimagined to reflect a decade of the Women’s Fund’s forty years of advocacy, expanding knowledge, and investing in women… rendered through the lens of women’s achievement in film. Take them in. They are forty years in the making.
CLAIMED PHILANTHROPIC SPACE
Inspired by The Piano (1993)
Jane Campion made history as the first woman to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes the same era the Women’s Fund was planting its roots in Milwaukee, both understooding that claiming space was an act of courage in itself.
IDENTIFIED PROBLEMS. FUNDED SOLUTIONS.
Inspired by The Hurt Locker (2008)
Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director proving at when women lead, they redefine what leadership looks like. The Women’s Fund was doing the same: naming what wasn’t working and investing in what could.
DEEPEND KNOWLEDGE AND INSPIRED ACTION
Inspired by Lady Bird (2017)
Greta Gerwig told a deeply human story because she told the truth. During this decade, the Women’s Fund deepened its commitment to research and storytelling… understanding that knowledge, honestly gathered, is what moves communities to act.
ENGAGED COMMUNITY. EXPANDED INFLUENCE.
Inspired by Nomadland (2020)
Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win the Academy Award for Best Director, a milestone that reflects what the Women’s Fund has worked toward for four decades: expanding who leads, who is seen, and whose story shapes the future.
GRATITUDE TO OUR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION PARTNERS!
Forty years of progress only happens with people who believe in it.
Thank you for making a gift that helped make this anniversary celebration possible.
MILESTONE PARTNER
PASSIONATE PARTNERS
Doris Heiser
WF Founding Mother
Liz Levins
WF Founding Mother
EVERYDAY PHILANTHROPIST PARTNERS
Michele Beaulieux
Sybil Bell
Sue Hickey
Kimberly Kane
Joy Peot-Shields
PROGRAM DONORS
Sheila Jozwik
Chris McAuliffe
Amalia Schoone
Beth Weckmueller
Christel Wendelberger
Ready to invest in Vision 2040? Learn more about the Making Milestones, Shaping Tomorrows Campaign and how your commitment powers the work ahead. Click to Explore the Campaign.
40th ANNIVERSARY MERCHANDISE
YOU ARE THE MOVEMENT. NOW YOU CAN WEAR AND DISPLAY IT.
Limited edition, 40th anniversary merchandise is available for your purchase… including a “You Are the Movement” hoodie, an anniversary pashmina, rocks glasses with special eitching and luggage tag to display while you travel.
This merch is a great way to carry the milestone forward.
Contact Lisa Attonito for details and to get your merch!
40th ANNIVERSARY MERCHANDISE
YOU ARE THE MOVEMENT. NOW YOU CAN WEAR IT.
40th Anniversary merchandise is still available… including a “You Are the Movement” hoodie, journal, pashmina, notepads, and rocks glasses.
A great way to carry the milestone forward.
Contact Lisa Attonito for details and to place your order.
- I want to be an astronaut.
- I want to be a singer.
- I want to be an architect.
- I want to be a farmer- I really like goats.
At the celebration, Joanne Williams took the audience through four decades of mission work: from the founding mothers who believed philanthropy could do better for women, to the scholars, advocates, and community builders whose lives reflect what that belief has made possible.
Her narrative, Four Decades: A Story of the Women’s Fund, is a reminder that forty years of progress is not a timeline. It is a collection of actions, investments, decisions, and moments; a rock dropped in water, and the ripple that followed.
Milwaukee Film Executive Director Susan Kerns, PhD, shared data that tells a clear story. Despite measurable progress over the past two decades, women remain significantly underrepresented in film, both behind the camera and on screen.
Of the top 100 grossing films in 2025, only nine were directed by women, the lowest number since 2018. Women of color who direct earn the highest critical scores of any group and are hired the least. And in 2025, not one woman of color age 45 or older appeared as a lead or co-lead in the top 100 films.
The data doesn’t just describe a gap. It describes a pattern… and a call to act.
That’s the foundation of a growing partnership between the Women’s Fund and Milwaukee Film, which began with a WF special grant that created Cinematic Sisterhood, a film series dedicated to celebrating the work of women and gender-nonbinary directors.
Filmmaker Laj Pershad Waghray, owner of Red Crane Films, shared remarks that grounded the night in something larger than a milestone.
She spoke about the late Janet Fitch, whose films the WF helped archive after her passing through a grant, and about what it means to tell stories that center women’s voices.
Drawing on her own work as a documentary filmmaker, Laj reflected on how change moves: not always in grand gestures, but in small, steady ripples that stay with people long after the moment has passed. Her closing invitation to the room, to find the courage to be just a little more “dangerous,” set the tone for everything that followed.
Anniversary
Committee
Diana Billstrom
Gina Jackel
Katie Walsh
Beth Weckmueller