Dorothy Stowe - Wonderful Woman No. 44

Dorothy Stowe - 1920-2010
American-Canadian Political and Environmental Activist

I would hazard a guess that Dorothy Stowe is one of the names of women in this album that not everyone will know off the top of their head? It seems a shame that a woman who dedicated her life to making the world a better place for others is not better known.

Dorothy was a a Psychiatric Social Worker with strong political leanings from an early age. With her civil rights lawyer husband, Irving, in the 1950s, Dorothy began campaigning against the development of nuclear weapons. They were pacifists, who left the United States as they did not want to support the Vietnam War by paying taxes to the government.

In 1968, in Canada, their new home, Dorothy, Irving and a group of friends formed a peace core with a focus on ecology, named the Don't Make a Wave Committee, after hearing that the U.S.A. planned a series of nuclear tests in Alaska. Sat around a kitchen table, the group decided to charter a fishing boat to where the tests where taking place. They changed the name of the boat to Greenpeace and set sail to protest against the nuclear testing. Greenpeace never made it's destination, the voyage was challenged by the coastguard and the group arrested. Even so, media coverage caused a public uprising and eventually forced the government to abandon the tests.

The group changed it's name to Greenpeace and ever since have been challenging governments and industry to work towards a greener, more ecological environment. They group has been pivotal in bringing the green debate to the forefront of public conciousness in modern society and now has offices in over forty country, including India, China and some African nations. Even into her 70s and 80s, Dorothy continued to be an active member of the organisation.

She was so sweet, she kind of had the feel of everybody’s grandmother. And yet she was so hardcore... She was just a lifelong activist for social justice, the environment and peace.
Rex Weyler, Fellow Greenpeace Campaigner

Dorothy was a woman full of tenacity, drive and the will to rectify all that was wrong in the world. I strongly believe that the world is a better place because of Greenpeace and, for that, I am thankful for the wonderfulness of Dorothy Stowe.

It is amazing, what a few people sitting around their kitchen table can achieve.
Dorothy Stowe

In 2005, at a concert in Canada, U2 singer Bono dedicated this song to Dorothy, he felt she was a woman of great inspiration >