Vivian Dowding

Vivian Mildred Dowding nee Gill (29 December 1892 – 26 June 1987) was born in New Westminster, B.C. into a Methodist family. She married John Albert Dowding in Kamloops in 1913 at the age of 20. She had three sons during the war years. Dowding was influenced by Margaret Sanger and other early pioneers of birth control in North America and became a noted activist in support of birth control for working women. By 1937 she represented the Parents’ Information Bureau (set up by A.R. Kaufman of the Kaufman Rubber Company in the 1930’s in Ontario). Based in Kamloops, she travelled throughout the Southern Interior, educating doctors about contraception and helping low-income women avoid unwanted pregnancies. She operated in defiance of Canadian laws that criminalized birth control until 1969.  Dowding was also an active member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the N.D.P. She is buried in Kamloops with her husband. Their headstone reads, “Follow not where the path leads…Rather go where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Audio Interview [1979]

Description

Dowding discusses working with Kaufman Rubber Company; conditions in working class communities during the 1930’s; the distribution process for birth control devices in Canada; attitudes twoards family planning on the part of Church and Kaufman; the role of the CCF in promoting birth control; facing police harrassment when seeing women in small towns; strategies to overcome the strong prohibition of public distribution of birth control; birth control as the first step to liberate women and alleviate the misery and poverty of many working class families.

Transcription

Full interview: Dowding, Vivian
Edited by Subject: Dowding, Vivian

 

Title: [Vivian Dowding – 1/2]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: Dowding, Vivian

Subject: Women–Employment–British Columbia ; Women labor union members–British Columbia ; Women–Employment–British Columbia–History–20th century

Date Created: 1979

Type: Audio recording

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 audio cassette

Format: audio/mp3

Language: English

Identifier: OBJ_625_sideA_01

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: Simon Fraser University Archives. Sara Diamond fonds

Rights: Media provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy or otherwise use of this media must be obtained from the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives.

Title: [Vivian Dowding – 2/2]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: Dowding, Vivian

Subject: Women–Employment–British Columbia ; Women labor union members–British Columbia ; Women–Employment–British Columbia–History–20th century

Date Created: 1979

Type: Audio recording

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 audio cassette

Format: audio/mp3

Language: English

Identifier: OBJ_625_sideB_01

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: Simon Fraser University Archives. Sara Diamond fonds

Rights: Media provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy or otherwise use of this media must be obtained from the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives.