In honor of International Women’s Day, we are sharing this compelling study out of Washington State Univerity that suggests that women had an enormous influence on human-dog coevolution. Researchers did a cross-cultural examination of data from 844 ethnographers, and discovered that women were instrumental in developing and deepening the human-animal bond. First author, Jaime Chambers, explains how the study reveals that “Humans were more likely to regard dogs as a type of person if the dogs had a special relationship with women. They were more likely to be included in family life, treated as subjects of affection and generally, people had greater regard for them.” Today, we celebrate women and their history of bringing dogs into our hearts and homes.