Feminism: chat
Statues of women
GOSBTS · 01/11/2021 20:05
Hi all,
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (now the Public Statues and Sculpture Association) last year highlighted a gender disparity of public statues in the UK. They calculated that statues of men outstrip those of women by about 5:1. They counted about 170 statues of women, although half of these are to unnamed female figures (think Statue of Liberty in the USA).
My question: are there any statues of women in your town/city?
Colchester is currently campaigning for a statue of the Taylor sisters, poets who wrote Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. More about that on this video: and link to contribute to the cause is here: gofund.me/16f7783e
I’ll start off: in Colchester alone we already have two of Boudicca, one of St Helena of Constantinople and two to unnamed female figures.
saleorbouy · 01/11/2021 20:47
Is this disparity not just a reflection of historical society where until the 1900 women were unable or not expected to take on leading roles in business, commerce and war.
Now thankfully women are viewed on an equal footing and statues of Queen Victoria, the Queen, Margaret Thatcher etc have been successful as role models and leaders. I'm sure in the coming years more female statues will be dedicated.
IntemperateSpirits · 01/11/2021 21:17
Queen Victoria was very good at putting up statues of herself. I think there was an article on the BBC last week about parity of blue plaques - only a very small percentage are not white men. I think that's where I got the QV comment from. Also that most statues of women are of naked women. Not the QV ones though 
NoYOUbekind · 02/11/2021 09:46
There are more statues of animals in my city than there are of women. Which actually also means there are more statues of slavers than there are of women... I can only think of Queen Vicky. There might be a couple of writers in the writers' museum but they're not 'public' in that sense.
I only live in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, where no woman has ever done anything of note.
NoYOUbekind · 02/11/2021 09:52
[quote weebarra]@NoYOUbekind, there's also one of Helen Crummy who founded the Craigmiller festival society, and the unnamed woman and child at Festival Square. Can think of so many more Edinburgh women who could have one.[/quote]
Where's the Helen Crummy one please @weebarra?
ta
NumberTheory · 02/11/2021 15:06
@HelloDulling
What a fantastic statue! And so nice to see a teacher lauded like that.
ErrolTheDragon · 02/11/2021 15:24
@Porcupineintherough
Some of the unnamed women are great - but in terms of disparity of numbers versus men, if unnamed non-figurative statues are included then there are even more men.
ProudMaiasaura · 02/11/2021 15:28
@HelloDulling
I was really happy to see Betty Campbell's statue. She was a true woman of the city and deserves celebrating - her spot is unmissable too, not hidden away in a random bit of the city.
Occasionally Cardiff Council does right but generally not often
Come on rest of Wales, there are plenty of women to celebrate - make a start!
VikingVolva · 02/11/2021 19:32
I'm in London so can think of several: the Women of WW2, Violette Szabo, Millicent Fawcett, Emmeline Pankhurst, Edith Cavell, Florence Nightingale, Virginia Woolf, the new one of Diana Princess of Wales
statuesforequality.com/pages/london is an interesting site. That link is to the London page, but it seems to be a US site and givers a number of cities round the world.
It gives a rather different figure for UK "Currently in the UK there are 828 statues and 21% are women"
Anannec · 02/11/2021 19:53
In Swindon you can definitely see a famous local woman commemorated:
www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5409581
17to35 · 02/11/2021 20:11
I am chair of a small hospital charity founded over 150 years ago by an amazing woman, Beatrice Clugston. She had a memorial where she was buried in Kirkintilloch and this was vandalised some years ago. We support its reinstatement.
Despite the social constraints of the day, Beatrice was remarkably effective and ended up living in poverty because of her charitable acts.
Few people have heard of her and no statue!
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.