Courtesy of Michael Bergmann
Three influential suffragettes are getting a statue in their honor in New York City’s Central Park. This will be the first statue in the park to depict any female historical figure.
A city commission approved the statue that will celebrate all three of the women.
The non-profit group Monumental Women advocated for this project to honor Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The bronze statue made by artist Meredith Bergmann was selected from 91 submissions, and will be unveiled on August 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the US.
Central Park of NYC has 23 statues of historical men, such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus, and Alexander Hamilton, but not one honoring a woman. In New York City, less than 3 percent of statues are of women.
Our #100YearsWomenVote campaign on Instagram celebrated women’s rights leaders Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells & Harriet Tubman as well as the anniversary of the day Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared her candidacy for Congress before women could even vote. https://t.co/xb5AYeN63q pic.twitter.com/oAesiebsWn
— Monumental Women (@MonumentalWomen) October 12, 2019
Every activist played a different role in the suffragette’s movement. Anthony voted illegally in 1872 and then was arrested. Stanton was the first woman to run for Congress in 1866; and Sojourner Truth, a former slave, became an outspoken advocate for civil and women’s rights.
Initially, the sculpture was just meant to include Anthony and Stanton, but Truth was added responding to criticism that an African American suffragist would not be included.
Women in the US won the right to vote in 1920, yet women and most men of color were excluded from their right to vote for several decades after.
Several governments around the world still restrict women from fully exercising this basic human right. Saudi Arabia, for instance, became the last country to allow women to vote in 2015. However, women still struggle to make political choices without men’s permission. In Pakistan, laws enforce how men and women should interact in public, while women who go to the polls are frequently criticized or even harassed.
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