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Go Vote for somebody in this poll:
Who was the most influential female atheist of 2009? ...here's a poll focusing just on the female voices of atheism. Who do you think was the most influential female atheist of 2009? ...HERE
I'm having a very hard time as this list includes some friends, some colleagues, some of my blog readers, and others what I think deserve to be voted on. Greta Christina has a great blog and is a frequent commenter here. I think she's actually winning. There are some big institutional names like Annie Laurie Gaylor and my long time friend Genie Scott. Rebecca Watsonat at Skepchick certainly deserves to win this in much the same way as Greta, because of a rise to importance without the institutional cover (not that Genie and Annie do not!
And then of course there are all those female atheists who are not on the list but who have been very influential to me, like my wife, my daughter, my friends Stephanie, Desiree Schell and Barbara Drescher, to name only a few.
Uffda, this is very difficult. I may have to sign on to Jen's blog (who should also be on the list perhaps?) from several different computers and vote for several candidates.
Politics
Comments
*blush*
Thanks, sir. You are one of my favorite atheists as well.
Also not on the lady list o' atheist awesomeness: Kylie Sturgess of the skeptic blog podblack.com. She'll be presenting at this year's atheist convention in Australia.
Posted by: Desiree | January 2, 2010 11:21 AM
I was thinking of her as well. An outrage.
Posted by: Greg Laden | January 2, 2010 12:03 PM
It was a tough choice, but in the end I went with Ariane Sherine for kicking off the whole atheist bus campaign. But I agree that there wre plenty of names that didn't make that list.
Posted by: The Science Pundit | January 2, 2010 12:22 PM
Thanks to blaghag for creating this list. There are several good writers whose names and works I was not familiar with, and they do not deserve to be "ghetto-ized" as female atheists. When are we going to start breaking it down to the top black atheists, Indian atheists, Jewish atheists, left handed atheist and of course then we need to add classifications for all of the agnostics and subgroups for each one of them. The first list should really have been more carefully considered before being put up.
Perhaps this is the reason that we don't see as many women atheists in atheist societies as we would like, they see themselves as yet again in a group which thinks of their contributions being secondary.
Posted by: Frank Cornish | January 2, 2010 1:46 PM
Ophelia Benson.
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | January 2, 2010 4:20 PM
Thank you. The influence is mutual.
Let's not forget a shout out for Jodi, too, of the online proposal that shouted, "No, really, people, atheists can love just like anyone else. Or maybe a little more creatively."
Posted by: Stephanie Z | January 2, 2010 8:58 PM
My vote's also for Ophelia Benson.
(And I agree with Frank Cornish.)
Posted by: Peter Lund (Denmark) | January 2, 2010 11:50 PM
I think any potential 2010 poll is going to have a larger pool of people in response to this, as I've seen a lot of people go 'what about?' - and yes, I think that there's plenty out there working hard and involved with accountable projects who are overlooked. I would say that I haven't done anything significant for atheism but it's nice to get a nod by people as 'being out there' regardless! :D).
I agree that the Global Atheist conference in March will showcase some great examples of women who have been doing a lot in their communities and world-wide - Catherine Deveny, Sue-Ann Post, Lyn Allison, Dr Leslie Cannold, Maggie Millar, Jane Caro, Tanya Levin and Taslima Nasrin. So, I hope that the news about them will be acknowledged.
Posted by: Podblack | January 3, 2010 9:02 AM
"Thanks to blaghag for creating this list. There are several good writers whose names and works I was not familiar with, and they do not deserve to be "ghetto-ized" as female atheists. When are we going to start breaking it down to the top black atheists, Indian atheists, Jewish atheists, left handed atheist and of course then we need to add classifications for all of the agnostics and subgroups for each one of them. The first list should really have been more carefully considered before being put up."
Being a woman isn't the same as being left handed, or black or jewish for that matter. It does make a difference, and it is nice for people to aknowledge atheism isn't a white old dude only thing. Women making it far in a movement that seems to under represent them is worth celebrating, same for atheists of color. I don't think I need to go into why left handedness is a stupid comparison (there isn't any political element to being a lefty). People of color and women need to work harder than most people in order to be taken seriously, so I see no problem with polls like this.
"Perhaps this is the reason that we don't see as many women atheists in atheist societies as we would like, they see themselves as yet again in a group which thinks of their contributions being secondary."
I think we see so few women atheists because they have to deal with sexist douchebags all the time. Pinning it down to a poll that AKNOWLEDGES the contributions of women is fucking ridiculous. You know what makes a womans contributions secondary? Having her tits commented on instead of her work, NOT having a poll about their contributions. I am a woman, and in my opinion the scarcity of women in atheist/skeptics circles is due to open hostility or sexualization of them by the majority (who are men). Being in a room that is 95% dudes is hard enough without having a bunch of them hit on you or try to convince you that evolutionary psychology says women can't be good computer programmers or whatever the fuck. It isn't an isolated incident, dude.
Posted by: skeptifem | January 3, 2010 3:56 PM
skeptifem, Frank was thanking BlagHag. First sentence. He was getting on the case of the original poll makers for not giving much thought to the composition of the list. "Left-handed" is a piece of hyperbole standing in for several real differences in the atheist movement.
Posted by: Stephanie Z | January 3, 2010 4:39 PM