NYC has hundreds of statues and only five sculptures depict actual historical women (In case you're wondering: Joan of Arc, Golda Meir, Gertrude Stein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harriet Tubman.) She Built NYC initiative aims to change that by commissioning and installing new public monuments that honor women naming its first subject: Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress.
The last few years have brought critical observation to statues and monuments in the U.S. According to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, more than 100 monuments and symbols of the Confederacy have been removed since 2015.
San Francisco recently introduced a policy requiring that women contain "at least 30% of nonfictional figures depicted or commemorated in statues and other works of art on City-owned property, public building names, and street names, be women."according to KQED.
The plan to dedicate a statue of Chisholm was announced on Friday on her birthday and 50 years after her election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Her statue will be at the entrance to Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
"We set out to correct a glaring inequity in our public spaces," Chirlane McCray, the first lady of New York City, told theTimes. "I hope that putting up the statue now will encourage even more."
In dedication to Women Month what better way to let women know they are appreciated by shining light on the women that have made history and change the way women are depicted in the world.
Images : Getty
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