New York's Central Park to Gain Statue of Women in History（在线收听）

New York City will finally honor real women with a statue in its famous Central Park. City officials voted this week for the creation of a statue of three female civil rights leaders. Central Park has 23 statues of men who were important in history, but none of women.

In fact, females are represented only by statues of imaginary characters. These include a statue of Alice, the hero of Alice in Wonderland books by 19th century British writer Lewis Carroll.

The new statue from artist Meredith Bergmann is to be uncovered next August. Visitors will see the representation of past activists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth.

The three women were contemporaries and leaders in the anti-slavery, women’s rights and anti-alcohol movements. Their activism helped to secure the right of women to vote in 1920.

Pam Elam is president of the non-profit organization Monumental Women. It worked with historians, community leaders and local officials in support of the statue. Elam said the artwork shows "the power of women working together to bring about revolutionary change in our society." The group privately raised $1.5 million to create and care for the new statue and a linked educational program.

Bergmann's early design for the statue included only Anthony and Stanton. Observers criticized its lack of African-American representation, noting that women of that group were also important to the fight for women’s suffrage. So, Bergmann redesigned the statue to add Truth.

Central Park is not the only area of New York limited in statues representing historical women. In fact, the government group She Built NYC says the large city of five boroughs has just five public statues of women from history.

A 2016 news story in the magazine Smithsonian.com reported that women were the subject of only about seven percent of public statues in the United States that depict real people.

I’m Caty Weaver.

Words in This Story

character –n. a person who appears in a story, book, play, movie or television show that is not real

contemporary –n. someone who lives during the same period in history as someone else

suffrage –n. the right to vote in an election

borough –n. a village, town or part of a city that has its own government

depict –v. to show someone or something through some art form: as in writing, painting or sculpture