Rachel Held-Evans recently posted a list of (mainly American) Christian women speakers in response to her dismay over the realization that women were mostly represented at conferences/events in a token way.

In seeing her list, I was challenged to create a list of 100 fantastic Canadian Christian women leaders in hopes of highlighting and cheering on female leadership in our world.  The names on this list aren’t necessarily connected to charities or ministry – some are accomplished women in professional life, and they represent various streams in Canadian Christianity: evangelical, mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, charismatic, and emergent.

I’m the first to declare this list is very limited.  It contains many charity leaders.  It is also heavily academic/theological with few professionals named.  It is Toronto-centric, which will irk the rest of Canada.  (You can add to this list in the comments section as there are other great names I’ve undoubtedly missed.)  In order to be neutral, I’ve also intentionally left out women who are related to me, but who are great speakers and leaders in their own right: Karen, Carol, Ruth, Alma and Judy.  I was inspired as a child by both my now-deceased grandmothers, Clara and Emily, who preached in their Nazarene churches and led their families despite many challenges.

In compiling this information, I had input and great additions from Lorna Dueck, Karen Hamilton, Steve Brown, Wendy Gritter, Aileen Van Ginkel, Gary Nelson, Heather Card, Sandy Reynolds, Kevin Makins and Rod Wilson.