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The Imbalance of Immortalisation Walking round the historic streets of our gorgeous city, you’ll find more named statues of animals than of women – an underrepresentation far from inconsequential. Words by Thomas McCabe
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arisa Urquhart’s Baftanominated film “Scotland, Slavery and Statues” has reignited a once fiery conversation that had been simmering. Statues were among the most debated issues in our public discourse of the last 18 months. There is one injustice that hasn’t had nearly as much discussion, scrutiny, or media coverage - the lack of statues of females in our city. It’s indisputable that in history, culture, and society, women have contributed just as much as men. Yet, in Edinburgh, there is a ratio of 47 named statues of men to two of women. The pair? Queen Victoria, the monarch who led the British Empire to become a superpower of its time, and Helen Crummy MBE, the founder and figurehead of the Craigmillar Festival Society. Staggeringly, it puts the total tally of named statues of women in Edinburgh behind those of…animals. Greyfriars’s Bobby, Wojtek the bear, and a statue of a dog from San Francisco called the “Bum Dog” outnumber females on this one. Animals are great, on that most people agree. When we are commemorating individuals in stone - human
or otherwise - to stand long after we are gone, you would hope out of the many amazing women in the history of our city, they’d manage to exceed our furry friends. Despite the acclaim Urquhart has received for her statue-centred documentary, the vast underrepresentation of women in these figures disappoints her, “There’s the acknowledgment that there’s minimal statues of women in Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole. In Edinburgh, there’s not much action being taken and that’s frustrating because there are a lot of amazing women that have made a lot of changes in Edinburgh and they do need to be acknowledged.” It is important to remember history is not binary, and of the many w o m e n deserving of a statue, it is particularly important to acknowledge women of colour, as well as white Scottish women. Agnes Yewande Savage is the first woman of West African descent to qualify as a doctor. She graduated with honours from the University of Edinburgh, then went on to help establish a nursing school in Korle-Bu, Accra, Ghana. Savage, despite facing severe gender and
“There are a lot of amazing women that have made a lot of changes in Edinburgh and they do need to be acknowledged.”
racial discrimination throughout her life, paved the way for thousands of West African doctors. There’s also the Edinburgh Seven - the first ever women undergraduate students at any British university. They faced rampant abuse, discrimination, and threats. With Edinburgh Uni refusing their degrees, they finished their studies abroad, with Sophia Jex-Blake becoming Edinburgh’s first female doctor. Although statues may only be stone, their impact goes beyond. As Urquhart says, “What people need to think about is, if they were walking around Edinburgh and all the statues were women, how would they feel? How would a man feel if all the statues around him are of women and not one of a man?” It is important to recognise that, by uplifting the women of our past, it is not an attack on men, nor is it historical revisionism. It is an acknowledgment of our shared history for what it is - shared. Right The Melville Monument in St Andrew Square
