Statues of women

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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.

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.

No actual free-standing statues on a plinth but some attached to buildings, if that counts. For example, Queen Victoria.
Nice topic, btw.

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

Last month the statue of Betty Campbell was unveiled in Cardiff. She was the first black head of a school in Wales, and the statue is the first outdoor public statue of an actual, non-fictional woman in all of Wales.

A statue of Anne Lister (she of Gentleman Jack fame) has recently been placed in the Piece Hall in Halifax

I don't think being unnamed is such a bad thing, as it reflects ordinary working women which, let's face it, make up the majority of us.
Such as the Women of Steel statue in Sheffield.

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, 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 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?

East Neighbourhood centre on Niddrie Mains Rd. I don't think I've ever seen it.

@weebarra

East Neighbourhood centre on Niddrie Mains Rd. I don't think I've ever seen it.

ta

Here’s the African woman and child in Festival Square, Edinburgh. I love it.

Thanks for this, OP. I'm listening to the talk right now.

We only have Queen Victoria here.

I also came on to post a picture of the women of steel and I agree with @deydododatdodontdeydo I dont think unnamed is necessarily an issue if the representation is of real women rather than, say, Athena or a muse.

@HelloDulling

Last month the statue of Betty Campbell was unveiled in Cardiff. She was the first black head of a school in Wales, and the statue is the first outdoor public statue of an actual, non-fictional woman in all of Wales.

What a fantastic statue! And so nice to see a teacher lauded like that.

@Porcupineintherough

I also came on to post a picture of the women of steel and I agree with *@deydododatdodontdeydo* I dont think unnamed is necessarily an issue if the representation is of real women rather than, say, Athena or a muse.

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.

@HelloDulling

Last month the statue of Betty Campbell was unveiled in Cardiff. She was the first black head of a school in Wales, and the statue is the first outdoor public statue of an actual, non-fictional woman in all of Wales.

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!

This is the glorious rebel Jackie Crookston who was one of the leaders of the massacre of Tranent.

Fun fact: her statue replaced the truly terrible town clock that was part of the Stoneybridge sketch opening credits in the sketch show Absolutely.

I'd rather we try and match men's accomplishments than just have loads of random statues put up.

@KayKayWat

I'd rather we try and match men's accomplishments than just have loads of random statues put up.

I'm not sure the 'accomplishments' of some of the men depicted in statues are ones women would want to emulate.

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"

In Swindon you can definitely see a famous local woman commemorated:
www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5409581

In Edinburgh there were more statues of dogs than women until very recently 🙄

I'm near Coventry and there's a statue of Lady Godiva right in the middle of the city centre. She is naked though, but that is a bit central to the story I suppose.

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!