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.

@ErrolTheDragon

I love statues of dogs!

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

Our lovely bear statue also sported a suffragette coat for a wee while too.

A statue which represents one of the historical roles of women, I suppose, is Alice Nutter in Roughlee, Lancashire. One of the 'Pendle Witches'. I've not seen her but there are plenty of photos online.

There's a few in Liverpool- Kitty Wilkinson, Bessie Braddock, Amy Johnson are the ones I remember off the top of my head. There's also Eleanor Rigby if that counts

The statue of Alice Nutter is in a village a couple of villages away from me

@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.

It seems like more buildings are being named after women, although not statues. A new Barbara Castle Building has opened at the uni in my town. I guess that's fairly rare in the past, though we also had a block of flats named after Anita Lonsborough in the 60s.

Barbara Castle has a section of dual carriageway in Blackburn named after her too.

Re uni buildings, Rosalind Franklin has a few, as has the even greater crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin. And there's another woman who has made a massive contribution to the field who, together with her late husband, has a building in her name while still alive (may still be working, not sure) - the Eleanor and Guy Dodson building in York uni.

www.maryanningrocks.co.uk/

There is a great campaign to get a statue of Mary Anning up in Lyme Regis, set up by a mother and daughter, check out their progress (good inspiration for anyone looking to get a statue up in their town).

Walsall - Sister Dora
Birmingham - I think the "floozi" has just been evicted from her jacuzzi, not sure where she's gone. Also in Birmingham the "real modern family" of 2 sisters and their kids.

I stopped short In Berwick the other week, after a moments thought I realised why. It was a statue of a woman .

Haven't found out much about her , but I did discover this

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/news/statue-highlights-campaign-140918%3famp

@ErrolTheDragon The pup in the crocheted jacket is life.

That reminds me, there's a gallery which covers many of the UKs statues of women - it includes mythological/figurative examples because of the dearth of those depicting real women.

resistersunited.org/gallery/

Mary Wollstonecraft statue.
Just no.

I was going to post the Sheffield statute of the buffer girls as well - working class women celebrated!

We have a statue of Diana Dors, who was born here.

Here you go

@MrsFin

Here you go

Bet the fellas love this statue. 🤣

In Hull we have:

A statue of aviator Amy Johnson,

A bridge named after Dr Mary Murdoch- the cities first female GP,

Two murals of The Headscarf Revolutionaries, who campaigned for better safety in shipping trawlers- including the awesome Lillian Billoca,

A sculpture called Truelove of an Inuit couple who were brought to Hull on a whaling ship. The 15 year old Uckaluk died of measles on their return journey home.

Queen Victoria- of course!! Twice.

I love Diana Dors, but I'd love to erect beside her a statue of Germaine Greer, looking at her quizzically, with an ill-repressed smirk, as only Germaine can.

We also have a phone box painted in black and yellow stripes for the wonderful Jean Bishop, fundraiser, known as Bee Lady.

we’ve got a couple of florence nightingale, but i can’t think of any more. i’m in derby.

I heard on Facebook there is a campaign to erect a statue of Elsie Inglis in Edinburgh, somewhere near the medical school.

Bet the fellas love this statue. 🤣

She is certainly very buxom!

@Maireas

Mary Wollstonecraft statue. Just no.

Why do most of the statues in this thread feature women with their kit off. 😂

An enduring mystery, @KayKayWat, similar to the number of female nudes in art galleries.

I liked that Diana Dors she was underrated as an actress and didn’t take herself too seriously. It’s a hell of a lot better than the crap one of Victoria Wood who deserved better.