Statues of Referent Women in the Cities of the World
The project of the six-and-a-half-meter sculpture located in Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico called "Tlalli" would replace that of Christopher Columbus.
The Woman Post | María Claudia Londoño D
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The project of the six-and-a-half-meter sculpture that would be located in Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico, is called "Tlalli" which means "land" in Nahuatl, inspired by the colossal heads of the Olmec culture and would replace that of Christopher Columbus who is located there, which has caused strong controversy.
But the reality is that this discussion brings to light the low representation of female statues in the world.
In 2019, the "Statues for Equality" initiative was launched in New York with an exhibition of sculptures of ten famous women, such as Jane Goodall or Oprah Winfrey, to denounce the scarce presence in the city of works of art public dedicated to female figures, commemorating August 26, 1920, when women were granted the right to vote in the United States.
Artists Gillie and Marc Schattner noted that “in New York City alone, there are more than 150 statues of historical figures accessible to the public, but, unfortunately, only 3.3% of those represent women in history: Joan of Arc, Golda Meir, Gertrude Stein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harriet Tubman."
Also read: THREE FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS COLLECTIVES YOU SHOULD FOLLOW
And based on their proposal, they decided to model bronze effigies of Oprah Winfrey, Pink, Nicole Kidman, Jane Goodall, Cate Blanchett, Tererai Trent, Janet Mock, Tracy Dyson, Cheryl Strayed, and Gabby Douglas.
From that city, the appearance of the statue Fearless Girl celebrated for its defiant attitude, was installed without authorization in 2017 for Women's Day (March 8) in front of the statue of the bull of Wall Street, and today it is located in front of the stock exchange building.
In the United States, the figures obtained are 5,193 public statues representing historical figures throughout the country and only 394 are of women.
In the city of Barcelona, Spain, the story of María Isabel Gascón noted that in the city there are more than 150 statues in the streets, and only 14 are of women, some without identifying which woman they refer to, that is, without a name or last name.
In the United Kingdom, we found 965 statues, with only 15% referring to women. In that country, Terri Bell-Halliwell, is the founder of the inVISIBLEwomen project, carrying out campaigns in favor of gender equality in public statues.
The truth is that the various plans on making visible women representative of cultures, of those who have broken stereotypes and marked history without being taken into account, is gaining strength and surely we will be able to see in the coming days a greater number of statues in honor of its imprint on societies and humanity.
