Sara Dowse

Sara Dowse (born 12 November 1938) is an American-born Australian feminist, author, critic, social commentator, and visual artist. Her novels include Schemetime published in 1990, Sapphires, and As the Lonely Fly, and she has contributed reviews, articles, essays, stories, and poetry to a range of print and online publications. Dowse posted a blog, Charlotte is Moved with political, social and artistic themes, from 2013 to 2016.

She was a Canberra public servant, the inaugural head of the first women's unit in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and oversaw the unit's growth from a section to an office. Dowse held this position from 1974 to 1977, under two prime ministers (Edward Gough Whitlam and John Malcolm Fraser), and resigned in protest of the office's removal from the prime minister's department. Her first novel, West Block, is based on her experiences in government and was one of the first works of fiction set in Australia's capital Canberra.