Plans for a statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, the first-ever monument of a woman to stand within the iconic central London location, have been given the go-ahead. This follows a successful planning application from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan to Westminster City Council.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid and the Mayor are working to ensure that the statue will be unveiled for the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People’s Act, which gave some women the vote, and was introduced thanks to the campaigning of Fawcett and other suffragists and suffragettes.
“Putting a statue of a woman in Parliament Square is long overdue but it is absolutely right that it is Millicent Fawcett who is being commemorated. She made it her lifetime's work to secure votes for women.
"We need statues of women in all our town squares and major cities. Who we commemorate and celebrate says a great deal about who and what we value. Monuments of women are largely invisible from our public spaces. This has to change."
Following Caroline Criado-Perez’s campaign for a statue of a woman in Parliament Square, the Mayor announced Turner Prize-winning Gillian Wearing as the artist who will take the landmark project forward, making it the first statue created by a woman to be erected in the square.
Gillian Wearing today unveiled a model of the monument, which will be a contemporary depiction of Millicent Fawcett at the age of 50, the year the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies was founded. The statue will portray Fawcett holding a placard which reads ‘courage calls to courage everywhere’ – taken from a speech she gave after the death of Suffragette, Emily Wilding Davidson, at the Epsom Derby. Loaned by the Fawcett Society, an original brooch which was presented to Fawcett will be scanned and cast in bronze to feature as part of the monument.
The entire statue will be cast in bronze, using 21st century technology, and will complement the heritage of the iconic square. It will also acknowledge the contributions of the many other supporters involved in the struggle for universal suffrage by including the names of people who helped lead the campaign along the statue's plinth.
Throughout the creation of the statue, Gillian will work with an ensemble of historians, academics and artists to ensure the monument properly reflects the suffrage movement and Millicent Fawcett’s leadership and character. The monument will join the 11 statues already in Parliament Square including Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill.
Gillian was selected as the artist following a rigorous process undertaken by the Suffrage Statue Commission, which included gallery directors, curators, cultural leaders and campaigners, chaired by Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, Justine Simons.
Earlier this year, the Government announced that the statue would be funded as part of a £5 million fund to celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage. This was part of a wider package of funding for women’s issues in the Budget, including £5 million to support returners back to work after time spent caring, and £20 million to tackle domestic violence and abuse.
Caroline Criado-Perez launched her campaign for a statue in Parliament Square in May 2016, with a change.org petition which was signed by almost 85,000 people. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid and the Mayor backed the campaign, and have worked alongside other campaigners and civil society groups to ensure the statue can be located in Parliament Square. The statue of is co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK’s art programme for the First World War centenary.
“As a proud feminist at City Hall, I have given Caroline’s inspired campaign my full support and am delighted that we have been given the go-ahead to bring the first ever statue of a woman to the centre of British democracy in Parliament Square – something which is long overdue. Next year marks a century since the start of women’s suffrage in the UK - one of our country’s most pivotal moments – and our mission now is to ensure that we can begin the centenary celebrations with the unveiling of this landmark piece.
Read about the latest news related to the suffrage centenary here.