People Australia

Sally Bowen, n.d.

Sara Elva Gladys (Sally) Bowen, née Phipps (1918-1999) factory worker, feminist and Communist 

Birth: 9 January 1918 at Gunnedah, New South Wales, daughter of Andrew Phipps (1873-1949), share farmer, and Margaret, née Porter (1876-1965). Both parents had been born in Victoria. Marriage: 12 March 1954 at the district registrar’s office, Wollongong to a divorcee, David (Dave) Bowen (1914-1984), a coal miner, born at Pontypridd, Glamorganshire, Wales, United Kingdom. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 25 February 1999 at Thirroul, NSW. 

• Revered in Wollongong, New South Wales, as a Communist, feminist and local activist. She had little formal education and a long-term interest in poetry, while adhering to the maxim: “politics, cookery and a bit of poetry for light relief”.
• Her first job was working as a drover in Gunnedah. She worked as cook at a Corrimal Hotel when her share-farming father moved to Wollongong in search of work. In 1940 she joined the Federated Ironworkers’ Association and was a member of the shop committee. In 1942 she worked at Lysaghts on production of the Owen gun.
• In 1942 she joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). From 1944 to 1947 she worked at the Berlei apparel factory and proselytised against the management sympathies of the Clothing Trades Union. She was active in the CPA through the 1949 coal strike. In 1950-1955 she was secretary of the South Coast division of the CPA.
• Prominent in forming miners’ auxiliaries, the CPA and Union of Australian Women.
• In 1964 she led the CPA's women's delegation to Russia. Was active in peace and anti-Vietnam war movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Prominent in addressing aged care issues with Wollongong Council and in campaigning for female employment at Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd during the same period.
• In 1991 a park and playground was named after her in Fairy Meadow, Wollongong. Re-elected secretary, South Coast division of the CPA in the 1980s. Author of A Garland of Poetry. 

Sources
Information from Sally Bowen, 1992; Elizabeth Windschuttle, (ed) Women, Class and History: Feminist Perspectives on Australia 1788-1978 (Melbourne, 1980), pp 405-421, Len Fox, Australians on the Left (Potts Point, 1996); Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong), 27 February 1999, p 10.