Project Section: Monuments & Memorials
Monuments & Memorials
Our Monuments & Memorials project will tackle our nation’s countless statues, plaques, and markers — the overwhelming majority of which are dedicated to men.
A capital reflects the values of the country, and Washington D.C. is no different. The city boasts a number of famous and beloved monuments — the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial — all of which are heavily visited by the capital’s 15 million annual tourists. Of the forty-five monuments and memorials in Washington D.C., only one expressly honors the contributions of American women: the Vietnam Women’s Memorial (pictured at right), which was finally installed in 1993 after years of opposition. Although 265,000 women served during the Vietnam War, there was strong resistance to the idea of commemorating them in sculpture. Some opponents insisted that the Three Fighting Men sculpture at the Vietnam Memorial — which depicts three male soldiers — magically represented all human beings regardless of gender, and that it would somehow “cheapen” things by including a sculpture of an actual female. (One commissioner remarked that putting up a monument to women veterans made about as much sense as putting up a statue of dogs who had been in Vietnam.)
But bias in monuments is hardly restricted to Washington D.C. It’s a similar story in cities all over the country. A quick survey of New York City, for example, indicates that of the 159 historical statues on display, only five are of women.
Our Monuments & Memorials project will address this problem on both a local and national level: from urging municipalities all over the country to install and name memorials after women, to securing more monuments to women in Washington D.C. We’ll need project coordinators, state coordinators, local advocates, interns, and volunteers of every description.
Watch this space for updates as the project takes shape.