100 years ago today a demonstration of women textile workers started the Russian Revolution. Seven days later, the government granted women the right to vote. To the women in our lives: We love you!

In support of International Women’s Day here is our list of women who have or continue to contribute to humanism:

Alice Walker:  Author and human rights activist.

Margaret Atwood: poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist.

Mary Calderone: Doctor and public health advocate.

Emma Goldman: Writer and political activist.

Betty Friedan: Writer, feminist and political activist:

Rebbecca Goldstein: Philosopher and novelist.

Zora Neale Hurston: Novelist and Anthropologist

Diane Munday: Women’s Rights Activist

Ayn Rand: Writer and Philosopher

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Author and activist

The Freethought Blogs has a really great list of female atheists as well.

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft

I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.”
― Charlotte Brontë,