Dorothy Gibson-Ferrey oral history interview, May 9, 1996

Interviewed by Dana Van Tilborg. Dorothy Wiggins Gibson-Ferry begins her oral history with a fascinating account of life in interwar New England. Her father was a painter, her mother an early English Suffragette, and her family interacted actors, artists, and writers. Gibson-Ferry says that she became politically active in 1973: After volunteering for the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services for a number of years, she was asked to serve as the first chairperson for the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women. Gibson-Ferrey recounts some of the issues dealt with by the Commission, including sexual stereotyping in vocational training agencies, sexual discrimination in state government, and the poor conditions of women's prisons in Georgia. Gibson-Ferrey believes that one of the major successes of the Women's Movement is that women now have access to a greater choice of professional and executive careers. She feels however, that as a society, we still need to be concerned about poverty among elderly women, as well as women's education and health.