Is Suffragist statue really hanging out washing?
MILLICENT FAWCETT was one of the great feminist leaders of her day.
A dogged suffragist who pushed for more than 40 years to bring women the vote, she is finally to be remembered with a statue commemorating her achievements, the first on Parliament Square of a woman.
So it was with some concern that councillors approving the plan noted that the design meant Fawcett looked as if she was carrying out a rather less feminist activity – hanging out her washing.
The statue, which is designed by Gillian Wearing and the result of a campaign conceived two years ago by campaigner Caroline Criado-perez, received final approval from Westminster City Council’s planning department on Tuesday. But the design will have to be changed after councillors raised concerns that the statue, which features the feminist leader holding a placard with the slogan “Courage calls to courage everywhere” looked from the side like Fawcett was holding up washing to a line.
Sir Neil Thorne, the former MP, who was also at the meeting to witness deliberations over his own plan to install a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette, on nearby Canning Green, said: “The maquette that they produced showed Millicent Fawcett standing stationary but holding in front of her a placard. When you looked at it sideways it looked as though she was putting the washing on the line... They didn’t think it was appropriate at all.”
The issue is understood to be among those raised about the statue’s design, including the question of whether it would be vulnerable to graffiti from vandals.
A council spokesman confirmed that the comments had been made and said the design would be “amended” to deal with the issues.
Ms Criado-perez said: “The historical reality is that those were the placards that were used and that was the slogan that was used. So I don’t think there are going to be massive changes made to it.” She said the washing line reference had been a “throwaway comment”.
A decision on the Pankhurst statue was “deferred” until a new home could be found for an existing memorial in Victoria Embankment Gardens.