Canadian Voice of Women for Peace


Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, also known as Voice of Women or VOW, is a Canadian anti-nuclear organisation which was formed in 1960 in response to an article in which Lotta Dempsey, a journalist for the Toronto Star, called out for action against the threat of nuclear war and asked women to work together for peace. In response to the article, a group of women contacted Dempsey, and formed a women's organization that they called Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. The membership quickly grew to six thousand members, and the organization held an international peace conference – the first of its kind – in 1962. One of the most effective campaigns that Voice of Women implemented was collecting baby teeth in North America and demonstrated that the baby teeth collected contained high levels of Strontium-90, in order to put pressure on the Canadian government to promote a treaty banning nuclear testing.
Prominent women associated with VOW include Thérèse Casgrain and Grace Hartman.