Suffragist statue a reminder of ‘absence’ of memorials to women in Scotland
● Statue of activist Millicent Fawcett unveiled in London
The unveiling of the first statue to a woman in Parliament Square serves as a reminder of the “palpable” absence of memorials to women across Scotland, according to one of the key figures behind the nation’s only accredited museum dedicated to women’s history
There were celebrations in London yesterday at the unveiling of the bronze honouring suffragist leader, Millicent Fawcett, a campaigner for women’s right to vote during the early 20th century.
Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Theresa May said the statue would provide inspiration for future generations, while London mayor Sadiq Khan said the “historic day” represented the first steps towards ensuring women are properly represented in Britain’s public spaces. The statue, erected after a campaign by the feminist writer and activist Caroline Criado Perez – is the first of a woman to be sited in Parliament Square.
Last month, a statue to Mary Barbour, a prominent campaigner in Glasgow during the 1915 Rent Strikes, was unveiled in Govan to coincide with International Women’s Day.
However, organisations promoting and celebrating the achievements of women throughout history said more could be done.
Sue John, enterprise development manager at Glasgow Women’s Library, said occasions such as yesterday’s unveiling sparked renewed debate about the lack of memorials to women. The issue, she said, remained problematic.
“Clearly there is a palpable absence of Scotland’s great women in our civic landscapes, where our great men are visibly, often triumphantly, celebrated through statues, buildings and street names,” she said.
“But this is part of a much broader issue of women having been routinely written out of history more generally, and the lack of memorials is one symptom of this.”
She added: ”It’s important that women are written back in to history, and that there are visible manifestations of their achievements because there are consequences to their absence.”
Ms John said she had “mixed feelings” about statues being considered the only suitable form of commemoration, describing it as a “monolithic form” which felt “outdated and unimaginative”.
Lynn Abrams, professor of modern history at the University of Glasgow and a member of the steering committee of Women’s History Scotland, agreed that statues had a “very particular kind of meaning” in British society, and that some people took issue with them.
She pointed to the Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland project – a collaboration between Women’s History Scotland, the Glasgow Women’s Library, and Girlguiding Scotland – which has collated a map of hundreds of memorials around Scotland.
“There are traditional plaques and statues, but there also the likes of benches and stained glass windows,” Ms Abrams said.
“People should walk down their street and realise what’s out there.
“There’s a huge variety of memorials to women.”
The statue to Fawcett, the work of Turner Prize-winning artist, Gillian Wearing, shows her holding a banner which reads: ‘Courage calls to courage everywhere’.
The line is taken from a speech made by Fawcett after suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was killed.
COMMENT “This is part of a much broader issue of women being routinely written out of history more generally, and the lack of memorials is one symptom” SUE JOHN