The only statues of women figures standing in Central Park are straight out of storybooks, and it’s about time New York City leaders got around to consecrating monuments for real women in history — not just Mother Goose and Alice who wandered into Wonderland.

In a historic move, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation recently unveiled its plan to construct statues of women’s suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The city plans to unveil the completed project on Aug. 18, 2020 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.

It’s only fitting that these statues are so delayed. The hesitancy to immortalize women who were changemakers follows the same historical pattern that postponed women’s suffrage in the United States to 1920. It’s worth noting that although the only women depicted in Central Park statues are fictional, 29 of the park’s statues were built to honor men who — get this — actually existed.

Amid heated political debates surrounding the presence of Confederate statues in public spaces and on government grounds across the country, the decision to include women in the narrative has been well-received. Pam Elam, president of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund, told Newsweek the decision is a major win given the current political climate in the U.S.

“We are going to break the bronze ceiling in Central Park to create the first statue of real women in its 164-year history,” Elam said. “This is an instant history lesson. … It’s learning from the past to do a better job of fighting for equality and justice in the future.”

And now more than ever, the fight for gender equality and justice rages onward. With women only encompassing 20 percent of Congress and a staggering 5 percent of top-level executive positions at S&P 500 companies, the presence of women figures in public spaces has momentous value. When young girls see women in power reflected back at them in popular culture and across industries, it adds validity and promise to their own future aspirations and contributions.

That’s exactly what this new addition to Central Park will help accomplish.

“By having women missing, it sends the message to young girls and young boys that women did not play a prominent role in the building and the growing of our nation,” said Joan Bradley Wages, president and CEO of the National Women’s History Museum, in an interview with Time. “It’s as though women did not participate and they do not deserve the respect that men do who are portrayed across the country.”

Regardless of what people may argue, the increased visibility of progressive women figures in museums and monuments holds immense social currency. Their presence reinforces to young American women that their voices have merit and their dreams are more than wishful thinking. We can’t rewrite our country’s history, but we can highlight the progress that has been made as we embark on a brighter future.

And if women aren’t offered a seat at the table, then it’s about time we pull up our own chairs.

Kelsey Thompson is a junior magazine journalism major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at katho101@syr.edu.

Published on November 20, 2017 at 8:09 pm