The trouble with the atheist movement, of which I consider myself a part, is that sometimes it just looks far too much like religion.

To put it bluntly: it’s pale, stale and male.

Richard Dawkins, the late Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett, are often referred to as atheism’s 'four horsemen'. All deeply interesting individuals - but also exactly the sort of faces that a patriarchal religion might appoint as its elders.

"It still isn’t remotely surprising to find an atheist event with an all-male line-up."

Recognising this, Somali author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali was added to the clique when Hitchens died (the fourth horse-woman).

But - maths alert - having twenty-five percent representation is not the same as equality and it still isn’t remotely surprising to find an atheist event with an all-male line-up.

Any public discussion around atheism tends to come from men, too. Comedians Ricky Gervais and Robin Ince have appeared in a stage show about it. And who can forget Stephen Fry's hugely popular video on the subject from last year, in which he branded God "utterly evil".

With a shortage of women at the table, the movement’s focus has tended to land on issues such as free speech and has often failed to engage with others like reproductive rights.

These are vital to female emancipation. We can talk about equality in the workplace all day, but it’s meaningless if we forget that, until very recently, the main thing keeping women out of the office was that we spent half of our adult lives pregnant and the other half stopping toddlers from eating each other’s bogies.

It’s high time more women got off the fence and outed themselves as atheists. There’s nothing wrong with being Godless – it might even be good for us.

"Atheist groups should take the time to get their godless women into organisational structures and on to conference speaker lists."

Indeed, a recent study shows the higher the percentage of atheists in a country, the better for gender equality.

Feminists should take this on board and be proud and open about their rejection of outdated rules and doctrines. Atheist groups should take the time to get their Godless women into organisational structures and on to conference speaker lists.

A recent High Court ruling that all pupils in non-faith schools must study atheism is perhaps the first step in making this happen for a new generation.

Organised religion has done women few favours

What often stands in the way is organised religion. This is more than obvious to any woman who’s had to run the gauntlet of praying, placard-waving evangelical Christians just to walk through the doors of an abortion clinic. I’m guessing Dawkins and Dennett don’t experience this very often.

Religion of all flavours has done horrific damage to women's rights for centuries; not surprising given it was designed by men in a time when women were typically viewed as little more than property. All that information about who to take as your wife after you’ve vanquished your enemies - and very little mention of whether the women should have considered a pre-nup.

"In many feminist circles there’s a hurry to embrace religion. You can be a feminist and wear a burka, we’re repeatedly told."

The Angel Gabriel told Mary “fear not”. We can only guess at Mary’s response. “Nice wings mate, I consent to participate in this strange celestial sperm donation” it probably wasn’t.

That’s how bad this patriarchal religion thing is: it tells us that the most perfect role model for women is a virgin who had a baby on Christmas day. Talk about achievable goals.

The sexism of organised religion needs to be challenged and dismantled. We’re hardly likely to achieve that with a movement that still seems to leave the old boys club in charge.

In many feminist circles there’s a hurry to embrace religion. You can be a feminist and wear a burka, we’re repeatedly told. Of course you can. You can show up to feminism naked - though it’s best to ring ahead.

Ayaan Hirsi-Ali

What you can’t do is be a feminist and ignore the messages that religiously-motivated veiling often perpetuates: that women are responsible for sexual violence against then; that gender segregation is necessary; that the punishment for choosing to remove an impractical, cumbersome item of clothing should be death by stoning.

Yes, there is discrimination against religious groups - but it is not the job of feminism to solve that. But there’s also discrimination against women within religious groups, and if we want to tackle it then we need to stop pandering to the men in charge.

"A powerful well-supported movement of godless women has the potential to free fifty-two percent of the world’s population."

Godless women like myself don’t always feel particularly welcome in feminist circles. A year ago, Goldsmith’s College pulled my feminist comedy show citing complaints that it included Islamophobia. It was the burka thing again. Actually I’m offended that anyone thinks all Muslim women wear burkas. They really don’t. But no-one asked my opinion.

Another Godless woman, my friend and human rights campaigner Maryam Namazie was recently banned from speaking at Warwick University’s Students Union because it was concerned she might offend Muslim students. It was lifted after a public outcry – but it speaks volumes about our reluctance to openly question religion. She was later heckled during a talk at Goldsmith’s by the university’s Islamic Society.

It’s incidents like these that prevent atheist women from stepping out of the shadows and encouraging honest conversation that truly challenges religious doctrine.

A powerful well-supported movement of atheist feminists - of us Godless women - has the potential to free fifty-two percent of the world’s population from compulsory continuous motherhood and restrictions on everything from clothing to education, work to sex - as well as the financial and time resources that organised religion demands.

There is so much to be achieved. How about we resolve to start now?