Women's Rights Pioneers Monument

Funding The notion of the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument project was conceived in 2013 by a faction of volunteers overseen by Pam Elam, a retired lawyer and feminist, and Coline Jenkins, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's great-great-great granddaughter. The Monumental Women Association was founded by this group in 2014 to raise funds for a project called the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund, with an objective to "break the bronze ceiling in Central Park by creating the park's first statue of non-fictional women there. The phrase "break the bronze ceiling" is a reference to the common phrase "breaking the glass ceiling" with relation to the lack of statues of women in America, since only 8% of sculptures around the U.S. are of women. The campaign was run by Gary Ferdman and Myriam Miedzian, who argued that Stanton and Anthony were ideal subjects for the monument based on their legacy as "long lasting leaders of the largest non-violent revolution in our nation's history." including contributions from foundations, businesses and over 1,000 individual donations. Johnnie Walker, the Scotch whisky brand, pledged a purchase-driven fundraiser of $1 per bottle sold of their limited edition Jane Walker whisky, contributing $250,000. Other supporters included elected officials, every member of the New York City Council Women's Caucus, Congresswomen, U.S. Senators, and historians. Statue design The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation issued a request for qualifications and request for proposals for the monument, which attracted 91 submissions. A blind jury reviewed the submissions The competition was coordinated and managed by architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle. Bergmann had been thinking of a statue as early as 1995, when she worked on a film set in Central Park and noticed there were "no sculptures of actual women of note and accomplishment." Bergmann's design was intended to fit the park's neoclassical architecture while being suitable for its location. The statue depicts Sojourner Truth speaking, Susan B. Anthony organizing, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton writing, "three essential elements of activism," in Bergmann's vision. Bergmann researched the women extensively, painstakingly studying every photo and description she could find in order to accurately portray not just their physical characteristics, but also their personalities. The first design faced public outcry for celebrating two white suffragettes at the exclusion of Black suffragettes, ignoring the prejudices that marked the white suffrage movement; in response, Bergmann revised the statue to include Black activist Sojourner Truth. The revised statue shows Truth collaborating at a table with Anthony and Stanton, The scroll was omitted. The New York City Public Design Commission approved Bergmann's statue design on October 21, 2019. Scholars have noted that the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument reflects both progress and limitation in feminist commemoration. While the addition of Sojourner Truth marked an effort at racial inclusion, rhetoric scholar Jessica Enoch argues that this "project of inclusion" risks portraying a simplified vision of racial harmony without fully confronting the racism present within the suffrage movement. Art historian Sierra Rooney similarly observes that the monument's neoclassical style, shaped by Central Park's design regulations, reproduces traditional masculine conventions of heroism even as it centers women. Bergmann worked on a tight timeline to complete the statue in time for the unveiling, stating it was the fastest she has ever completed a work of this scale. After receiving approval, Bergmann immediately began creating the clay figures; the rest of the process, including making molds, casts, pouring the molten bronze, final touch-ups and patina, took nearly all the remaining time. Additionally, supporters of the movement, such as Pam Elam, Gale Brewer, sculptor Meredith Bergmann, and former New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, were present and gave speeches at the unveiling. == Criticism ==

The monument's initial design faced significant criticism, as it featured only Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The two women lean over a scroll listing the names of 22 other influential women's rights advocates. This design was criticized for reducing the roles of the other activists (seven of whom are nonwhite women) by portraying Stanton and Anthony being above the scroll, implicating that the two are standing on all of those named below them. This version of the statue was unanimously approved by the New York City Public Design Commission. The Commission conditionally approved the monument while requiring that the applicants "work to identify meaningful ways to acknowledge and commemorate nonwhite women who played an active role in the Woman Suffrage Movement". The monument began receiving public criticism about its lack of representation of nonwhite women. Scholars, drawing on feminist epistemology, argue that the monument simplifies and masks persistent epistemological fractures in the 19th‑century women's rights movement. These include debates over the Fifteenth Amendment, Black men's suffrage, and instances of anti-Black rhetoric, which are obscured by portraying Stanton, Anthony, and Truth as unified. The statue was unveiled shortly after an incident that drastically changed the political landscape of the time. In 2017, a white supremacist drove into a crowd of peaceful protesters against the statue honoring General Robert E. Lee to which Donald Trump, current president of the time, said that both sides were to blame which upset people because it demonstrated his "implicit tolerance". This began to highlight many of the statues that were rooted in political histories which also contributed to the political discussions of the Women's Rights Pioneer Monument. Truth's inclusion, intended to symbolize cross-racial collaboration and acknowledge the role of Black women in the suffrage movement, sparked further debate. One scholar, Karma Chávez, stated that the monument "integrates Truth into present-day suffrage memory without asking viewers to engage the racism that shaped the movement." Critics argued that while the monument now recognized Black women's involvement, it might also inadvertently downplay the racism inherent within some segments of the white suffrage movement, particularly in the years following the Fifteenth Amendment, which allowed Black men to vote. ==See also==