[4] "I saw the freedom, the opportunity to make satire, the (editors') lack of reverence for authority," she told Helen Trinca of The Australian in 2013.
When Neville co-founded the short-lived Ink in 1971, Rowe joined him, but resigned over the male domination of the venture after a few months.
[6][7] It appeared to her, and underground press colleague Louise Ferrier (who was romantically connected to Neville at the time), that sexual freedom for men still meant women were objectified and excluded from the editorial process.
Fifty people turned up at the first meeting in December 1971 at Rowe and Ferrier's basement flat in Notting Hill.
[9] An American in London, Bonnie Boston, had suggested the idea to her, but according to Stephen Alomes, the only other supportive voice came from Rosie Boycott.
[12] A Spare Rib Books imprint (soon to be renamed Virago Press) was founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil whose own company had assisted on publicity for the magazine's launch.
[5][13] Rowe, after herself leaving Spare Rib in 1987,[14] became a freelance editor, commissioning books for feminist publishers and writing her own works.
Rowe contributed to the 1992 anthology Serious Hysterics, edited by Alison Fell, which also featured short stories by Marina Warner, Lynne Tillman, Zoe Fairbairns, Nicole Ward Jouve, Leslie Dick and other writers.