New Statue of Women’s Rights Pioneers Unveiled in Central Park
On National Women’s Equality Day, a new statue of women’s rights pioneers was unveiled today in Central Park, commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote.
The first statue of real women has been put up in Central Park, depicting New York-based suffragists: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth. Anthony and Stanton worked together to push for women’s rights and specifically the right to vote, and Truth was a prominent suffragist and abolitionist in the 19th century.
A new statue of women’s rights champions was unveiled in @CentralParkNYC — the first statue of real-life women there ever in its 167-year history.
It was unveiled on #WomensEqualityDay, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. https://t.co/4I43xU9gjQ pic.twitter.com/ltfq8Z8rox
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 26, 2020
Sculptor, Meredith Bergmann told CNN that she has many hopes for this statue and what it represents for women in New York, and across the globe. In describing her powerful piece, Bergmann told CNN, “You’ve heard of breaking the glass ceiling. This sculpture is breaking the bronze ceiling.”
The non-profit organization, Monumental Women has been pushing since 2014 for the addition of a statue of real-life women in Central Park. The group’s president, Pam Elam, has confirmed that out of 145 statues of historic figures in New York City, only five depict women. Thus, the addition of this statue to Central Park is groundbreaking as it not only includes women in the historic narrative and provides us with representation, but it also highlights how women of color (Sojourner Truth and others) were involved in fighting injustice. The monument, depicting intersectional feminism, is located on Central Park’s Literary Walk.
In her artist statement, Bergmann details her reasoning behind depicting these three women in their positions when she says, “Truth is speaking, Anthony is organizing and Stanton is writing, and this is a representation of the three essential elements of activism.” She also continues when she says, “My hope for little girls who see these statues is that they will be inspired to do serious work for social change with the knowledge that women have been doing this kind of work for centuries,” Bergmann said, “and their rights descend from the work these women did.”
These three amazing women unfortunately died before seeing their dreams of equality come to fruition, but their legacy clearly lived on and has helped women all over the world for 100 years. We can’t wait to visit the statue ourselves and continue to push for equality, just as these brave women did.
