Therese Collie interviews Jean Bowden, an active member of the Australian Telephone and Phonogram Officers Association (ATPOA). In this interview, Bowden talks about her early life growing up on the Maroochy River where her father was a sugarcane grower; her school years; her first job at the Gympie telephone exchange and being encouraged by her father to join the union; boarding at the Convent in Gympie; working at the Nambour and Yeronga telephone exchanges; joining ATPOA; her involvement in the campaign to have the Bill that barred the employment of married women in the Commonwealth Public Service; Joyce Williams (Secretary of ATPOA); and her involvement with ATPOA.