She suspended her studies when she married the following year and moved to New York City, where she was active in opposing the Vietnam War and the founding of the women's liberation movement.
Margaret Nell Powell, later known as Peggy, was born on September 30, 1938, in Bell County, Texas to Paulina Otelia (née Jordan) and Sam Madison Powell Jr.[1][2][3] Her father was a physician, who after serving in the US Army in World War II, was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, before opening a private practice in Corpus Christi, Texas.
[13] Chastised by male activists, who argued that sexism was not an important issue, and lacking support from any other movement, Powell, Barrett, and Cade's class was suspended and the organizers moved on to other groups.
These consciousness raising discussions made them realize that their personal experiences were often shared and thus social acts, which if politicized could be transformed into issues that could be solved.
[19] New York Radical Women's first national demonstration was to protest the Miss America pageant in 1968 held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
[21] Demonstrators carried signs and Dobbins, dressed in one of her husband's suits, acted as a Wall Street financier and conducted a mock auction to sell off an effigy of the 1969-model Miss America.
She used Toni, because it was a sponsor of the pageant,[25] but news media reported that security believed Miriam Bokser, Bev Grant, and Dobbins had released stink bombs.
[29] The split occurred because part of the group thought individuals participating in the Women's Liberation Movement should be able to choose whether they aligned with the right or the left.
[30] One group that split off included Dobbins, Judy Duffett, Cynthia Funk, Naomi Jaffe, Robin Morgan, Florika Remetier, and others, who formed the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (W.I.T.C.H.).
[31] W.I.T.C.H., which could also mean Women Inspired to Tell their Collective History or other creative variations, often used art and street theater to protest against corporate capitalism, the Vietnam War, and the feminine beauty ideal.
[3] Dobbins returned to her studies at Tulane in 1972 and completed her PhD in sociology in 1974 with a thesis, Unionism, Professionalism, and Feminism among Registered Nurses.
[3] The findings led her to protest and in November 1980,[3][34] she donned a white robe, Adolf Hitler makeup and a mask of Ronald Reagan.
[15] The judge hearing the case, dismissed the anti-mask law violation the following month, noting that the ordinance had exceptions for party-goers, public parades, and presentations of educational or religious nature.
[35] The university fired her because of the protest, according to biographer Barbara Love,[3] but Dobbins stated that the school terminated her after the Fall 1980 semester "in part" because she taught controversial subjects.
[38] While her first case was pending, Dobbins was arrested again in October 1981 and charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to leave the offices of The Birmingham News.
[39] After her termination from the university, Dobbins worked for the NGO Protect America's Children and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.