If you were to count the statues in your local town, village or city, how many would you find that represent women?
Despite women making up more than half of the population of Europe, most of the statues you come across commemorate the lives of men.
Many statues of women that do exist tend to depict women as a concept – used for aesthetic or allegorical purposes – rather than specific female historical figures or their achievements.
Goddesses
The world of religion has always given us female statues – just think of Greek and Roman goddesses like Aphrodite, Venus
Royal women
But even though you maybe need to look a bit harder to find statuesque examples of real, named and notable women, there are some wonderful examples.
In many countries, royal women are popular. For example, it’s estimated that nearly half of the statutes depicting women in the UK are of Queen Victoria, as well as other queens like Queen Louise, Catherine the Great, Empress Josephine and more.
Female icons
In France, many statues depict Joan of Arc, such as these examples from Paris, Saint Etienne and Orleans.
In Amsterdam, you can find statues of a queen (Wilhelmina), a diarist (Anne Frank) and a singer (Tante Leen).
Further afield, we find actors such as Wenche Foss in Oslo, poets
Carving a place for female statues
But overall, women are still in the minority on statues. Now, some organisations and projects like ArtUK are documenting how many statues commemorate women and those like Invisible Women and Erect More Women are trying to make a change by campaigning for more statues commemorating women’s achievements.
Tell us about your area
Which women are commemorated by statues where you live? And which women would you like to see immortalised in statue form? Comment below or tweet us @europeanaeu
By Adrian Murphy, Europeana Foundation
Feature image: Queen Louise, Erdmann Encke, KU Leuven, CC BY-NC
I live in Dublin, Ireland. There is a great piece in St Stephens Green of Constance Markievicz (Irish politician, revolutionary, nationalist, suffragette and socialist – See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Markievicz#/media/File:Constance_Markiewicz_in_st_stephens_green.JPG)
Also, a great statue of a fictional character called Molly Malone who sang about “cockles and mussels, alive alive O”, see here -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone#/media/File:Molmalone.jpg
By far my favourite is of 2 women taking a break while shopping – http://www.kuriositas.com/2013/03/the-statues-of-dublin-and-their.html
Regards, Eric
Thanks Eric! Constance Markievicz is a great example.
I too live in Dublin.
“The Complete Guide to the Statues and Sculptures of Dublin City” by Neal Doherty was published in 2015 (Orpen Press). It covers 253 public sculptures.
Of those representing female figures, there are 48; 8 are of specific historic persons.
Of those representing male figures, there are 93; 68 are of specific historic figures.
Most definitely an imbalance.
Eric mentions the sculpture of two women taking a break – this is one I also particularly like. It is called “Meeting Place”, by Jakki McKenna, 1988.
Perhaps some other cities and towns and local areas in Europe have publications (in print or on-line) similar to Doherty’s book. It would be difficult in a historic city like Rome!
Thanks Pádraig – just over 10% then. There are many Irish women who would be worthy of commemorating – many on this list: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/a-new-map-of-ireland-honouring-some-of-our-outstanding-women-1.3800439
I live in the United States, in Utah. Last year our legislature determined that a statue of Martha Hughes Cannon, the first female state senator in America (1896), will become next year one of the two statues representing Utah in the United State’s National Statuary Hall. A small but highly visible step in bringing women into the world of commemorative statuary.
Thanks Mark – this is good news.
Interesante es la historia de Audrey Munson: modelo de infinidad de estatuas en Estados Unidos, alegóricas casi todas ellas. Desde el monumento USS Maine en Nueva York o la efigie de la Biblioteca Pública de Nueva York.