Statues of women

[GOSBTS]

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.

[Riverlee]

In Herne bay, there’s a statue of Amy Johnson.

[TrevorFountain]

I'm still getting over the Mary Wollstonecraft artefact.

[LavenderAskew]

Read this recently it said seven out of 200 in Dublin are women.

Now I can't say I can confidently confirm that but there's a lot of statues of men - admittedly very few I could name I do know two are of the same man.

There's not many women I could name five and of those only two are real women.

[deydododatdodontdeydo]

@Riverlee

In Herne bay, there’s a statue of Amy Johnson.

There's been one of her in Hull since 1974.

[GOSBTS]

@VikingVolva

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"

Many thanks for posting that link - a very helpful website which I’ve just bookmarked. I believe their statistics match the PMSA’s, roughly equivalent to 5 statues of men for every one of a woman.

I hadn’t realised London had an Edith Cable statue. I think Norwich has one too?

I must say I’m very fond of Lady Godiva’s statue in Coventry. The city markets itself on her legend and it’s in a real focal point of the city centre.

[GOSBTS]

Is there a campaign for a statue of this lady? It sounds like there ought to be! We are struggling with a similar lack of knowledge of the Taylor sisters here in Colchester - something which a statue should hopefully help start to reverse!

[VikingVolva]

Edith Cavell's statue is just to the NE off Trafalgar Square roughly between the National Portrail Gallery and St Martin in the Fields.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell_Memorial

There's also a memorial in Peterborough Cathedral, and the hospital is named for her. Also one of the shopping centre car parks, but I think that got dropped a while ago.

[weebarra]

@17to35 , that's such a coincidence as I was reading about her this morning. I'm from Lenzie originally and a friend of mine in Kirky has just moved to a street named after Beatrice Clugston!
I don't suppose you know where the house that was bought for her by subscription is?

[PlanktonsComputerWife]

@Sexnotgender

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

I love statues of dogs!

[PlanktonsComputerWife]

I can't find my picture of it, but there's a wonderful statue of George Eliot in Nuneaton. www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g504201-d12933566-Reviews-George_Eliot_Statue-Nuneaton_Warwickshire_England.html

I'd be down for more literary statues!

[VikingVolva]

I've done some more googling for statues in UK, and found these lists

lookup.london/international-womens-day-london-statues/

pssauk.org/women/ - many literary figures dotted round the country!

[OldTinHat]

There is only one statue in my small town. It's of Queen Victoria.

[IntemperateSpirits]

www.invisiblewomen.org.uk/theworks

Interesting reading. You can add suggestions of women to honour.

And here are some of the results- www.invisiblewomen.org.uk/theresults I love Floella Benjamin's.

[17to35]

@weebarra
I'm sorry, I don't know that. Your friend probably lives in Beatrice Gardens, built on the site of Broomhill hospital that Beatrice raised money for.
There will hopefully be a memorial garden. Friends of the gardens are in touch with the current Dorcas society at the Royal. I can't help compare today's philanthropists with Beatrice! The more you investigate her life, the more amazed you will be.

[Rhannion]

@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.

That’s a fantastic statue, as is the Anne Lister one.
I’m still angry about that pile of metal rubbish by Maggi Hamling

[ErrolTheDragon]

I love statues of dogs!

Yes... and recently someone knitted Greyfriars Bobby a wee coat in suffragette colours, so that was extra good.

[notacooldad]

In my sisters town they have a statue of Barbar Castle that was erected this year. There is also a statue of a generic grandmother and child as well as Queen Victoria.

[GOSBTS]

@IntemperateSpirits

www.invisiblewomen.org.uk/theworks

Interesting reading. You can add suggestions of women to honour.

And here are some of the results- www.invisiblewomen.org.uk/theresults I love Floella Benjamin's.

What a cracking website, thanks for sharing!

[PlanktonsComputerWife]

@ErrolTheDragon

I love statues of dogs!

Yes... and recently someone knitted Greyfriars Bobby a wee coat in suffragette colours, so that was extra good.

Pleeeeeease tell me there's a picture of this marvellous thing.

[Onlinedilema]

Only Queen Victoria.
I feel the same about street names there was a thread about it.
I can name many street names named after men, but not one name after a woman (where I live).

[ErrolTheDragon]

There's a photo on here, @PlanktonsComputerWife .

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4186986-Theres-been-a-sticker

I was wrong about it though, it looks to be crocheted not knitted.

[Anannec]

When my mother was in the Roehampton hospital, she was in the Mary Seacole Wing. I'm afraid I hadn't heard of Mary Seacole before that, but I looked her up, and I think she's well worth commemorating. There's also a statue of her (sticking to the title here!) outside St Thomas's hospital.

[Rhannion]

@ErrolTheDragon

There's a photo on here, *@PlanktonsComputerWife* .

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4186986-Theres-been-a-sticker

I was wrong about it though, it looks to be crocheted not knitted.

Yes Bobby’s coat was knitted and there is also a beautiful knitted suffragette coat on Robert Louis Stevenson dog in Edinburgh.

[Taciturn]

@saleorbouy

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.

Yes, I cannot stand this re-writing of history. It has such echos of 1930s book-burning in Germany that I find it really sinister

[Rhannion]

Stevenson’s dog was called Cuillin and he was a Skye terrier like Bobby. We have a dog with the unfortunate name of Bum and the statue of James Clerk Maxwell has a dog beside him. We also have a lovely statue of a bear and an elephant so Edinburgh definitely has more statues of animals than women.