Blue plaques trust criticises gender push
English Heritage’s call for more notable women to get honour is dismissed as ‘populist signalling’
THE British Plaque Trust has accused English Heritage of “populist signalling” after it called for more blue plaques for women.
Last week, English Heritage renewed its calls on the public to nomi- nate more notable women from history for blue plaques in London.
According to the charity, which only looks after plaques in the capital, only 14 per cent of the more than 900 London blue plaques celebrate women.
It hopes a push in nominations will increase the number of women honoured with the blue roundels.
But the British Plaque Trust, which administers the signs beyond London, is concerned by the plans, criticising them as a people-pleasing move.
Mike Read, the former Radio 1 DJ and head of the organisation, told The Sunday Telegraph: “Whilst we are all equal, there is little point in rewriting history to sanction a sudden rash of plaques to women, despite pressure on that front. This will balance itself out naturally and gradually as an increasing number of women take on important roles and have more opportunities in every genre.”
He added: “There’s no need for populist signalling. Historical commemorations should happen organically.”
Read has said he does not approve of affirmative action. “I’m not [an] advocate of putting up a great flurry of plaques to women simply because they are women,” he said.
It comes after he announced that there were too many blue plaques in general, claiming some were erected at spots that have only a fleeting connection to the famous person in question.
He added: “There are often plaques to worthy people but sometimes for trivial reasons.”
But English Heritage says it only approves 12 legitimate nominations per year and has a panel of historians, including the University of Bristol’s Prof Ronald Hutton, responsible for approving each plaque. Its revived push for female nominations comes in the centenary year of women’s suffrage.
Anna Eavis, the curatorial director and secretary of the English Heritage blue plaques panel, said: “This year’s centenary of the first votes for women has brought about an increased urgency to rebalance the record of women’s contribution to history.
“We really hope this enthusiasm will be translated into lots more nominations and ultimately more blue plaques for women. I think it’s reasonable to ex- pect that half of the nominations coming in could be for women.”
Of the 119 nominations English Heritage received from the public since 2016, a third were for women.
The successful nominations include Noor Inayat Khan, renowned for her service in the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War, and actress Margaret Lockwood.
Ms Eavis added: “The dominance of plaques to men reflects a historic blindness to both the role women have played in our society and the type of roles deemed worthy of celebration.”