Whatever Happened to the Female Heroes?

Over on his Part, Dave has produced a list of heroes. Woefully, unless his yet-to-be-revealed top ten is chock full with women, Dave's list of heroes is a pretty spectacularly female-free zone. Tut tut.

I was going to respond with a list of female heroes. But here's something better: a list of heroes both male and female, as some women deserve their place on such a list without needing a women-only list of their own. As on Dave's Part, it's a mix of political and cultural, and please feel free to comment on my choices and suggest omissions. Or ask who on earth some of them are ...

Minnie Lansbury, Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg, Aretha Franklin, Paul Weller, Steve Marriott, Rosa Parks, Dita Sari, Taslima Nasrin, Spartacus, Sylvia Pankhurst, Leon Trotsky, Shirley Winter, Emma Goldman, Alexandra Kollontai, Constance Markiewicz, Edgar Lansbury, Eric Heffer, Ray Davies, Alec Guinness, Marilyn Monroe, Angela Davis, Harvey Milk, James Connolly, Jim Larkin, Eleanor Marx, William Morris, Lynn Segal, Harry Thompson, Arthur Miller, Tanya Byron, John Wheatley, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and I'll no doubt think of some more as soon as I click 'publish' and will have to keep pestering the comments box.

PS. Like Dave, I fondly remember a certain Stranglers song, and indeed my forthcoming book has a chapter called 'Whatever happened to the heroes?'