Early training in workplace union skills transformed Madeleine Gaudet into a focused and persistent activist and public educator regarding all aspects of nurses' working conditions. Her presidency of the N.B. Nurses' Union and then her management of its labour relations office did not end her activism; today she maintains active advocacy for and leadership with seniors' issues.

Kathy Sheldon chaired the first Women's Institute Conference held in NL and was a member of the governing body of the Associated Country Women of the World from the 1970s to 1986.

Phyllis Artiss took every opportunity she could to help university students, especially Aboriginals and internationals, toward better academic success but she also tackled equity issues affecting women academics, linked women's studies with community-based living conditions, and gave significant service to municipal and provincial feminist organizations.

Nancy Riche worked to great pioneering effect in provincial, national, and international trade union organizations as a self-declared unionist, feminist, and socialist strategist, but read on for more detail and stories about her discreetly-applied strategies needed to overcome entrenched patriarchal attitudes and outdated workplace policies.

From an early age Edith Perry realized that she had to work toward equal rights and opportunities for the economically disadvantaged and silenced as well as develop the skills to examine, with a critical mindset, the many levels of impact of social injustice.

For over 25 years Olive Bryanton's name has been synonymous with consistent and informed advocacy for senior citizens, and especially the development of new services and ideas for better social policies; but younger generations also command attention because of her belief in better inter-generational understandings.

In addition to national and local level activism for the advancement of feminist agendas, Joan Hicks helped Nova Scotians of all walks of life realise how collaboratively-planned public library-based social development activity could be challenging and empowering.

A social justice and anti-poverty activist, Joan O'Keefe won Sister of the Year in 2001 and currently provides support to pregnant women as a volunteer doula.

Ann Bell's nurses union experience honed her leadership and political skills for addressing women's legal disadvantages and their lack of representation in public policy discussions, later expanding into many other issues that emerged while she led the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women during its crucial first years.

Mary Lou's extensive work on provincial and national boards to address systemic discrimination against women was always guided by the question, "Is it fair?"

Marian Perkins' pioneering public education and advocacy regarding alcohol addiction and her work for the rights and better care of women inside and outside of the prison system called for skillful approaches to those in power.

Refusing to live by the "wife of" conservative attitudes towards rural women, Ann Brennan claimed her own goals and worked to revise national agricultural policies, break through political barriers to build cultural relationships amongst Canadians and the Irish (in Northern Ireland and Ireland), and respond to local community issues.

Mary Majka's decades of principled, passionate and successful activism for the protection of the natural and built environments and educating the public about their heritage has earned her many significant awards but she remains vigilant, for new threats and new opportunities abound.