A statue of a woman just went up in Parliament Square, London, for the very first time. Important figures from history are commemorated at the Westminster site.
It's only been 186 years since the very first statue in the square was erected, that of Benjamin Disraeli – but hey, better late than never.
The latest addition is Millicent Fawcett, born in 1847, one of Britain's most celebrated feminists. She now stands alongside Winston Churchill, William Gladstone, Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln.
Millicent Fawcett (1847–1929), circa 1885
"I would not be here today as prime minister, no female MPs would have taken their seats in parliament, none of us would have the rights and protections we now enjoy, were it not for Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett," Theresa May said at a ceremony unveiling the statue.
Prime minister Theresa May and mayor of London Sadiq Khan at the unveiling of the statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett, in Parliament Square, London.
"The struggle to achieve votes for women was long and arduous and Dame Millicent was there from the beginning," May continued.
"For generations to come, this statue will serve not just as a reminder of Dame Millicent's extraordinary life and legacy, but as inspiration to all of us who wish to follow in her footsteps."
MPs including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Labour's Dawn Butler, and Labour's Harriet Harman watch the unveiling of the statue.
A placard reading "courage calls to courage everywhere" is held by the bronze statue, created by artist Gillian Wearing. It references Fawcett's fight for some women to win the right to vote.
The quote comes from a speech Fawcett gave following the death of leading suffragette Emily Davidson in 1913, who was killed when she threw herself in front of the King's horse at Epsom Derby in protest over women being denied the right to vote.
Fawcett was a leading member of the suffragist movement, which spent decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries campaigning for votes for women.
The suffragists were a genteel group of women who organised marches, wrote to MPs, and engaged with leading public figures to lobby the government for change.
Fifty-nine more women who fought for women's right to vote will be listed on a plaque on the statue's plinth, including Fawcett's niece Louisa Garrett Anderson, a doctor who served time in Holloway prison for her campaigning, and Sophia Duleep Singh, an Indian princess who was active in the movement.
The suffragist movement was often accused of focusing only on the issues faced by middle-class women.
Millicent Fawcett addressing a meeting in Hyde Park as president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
When women did eventually win the vote in 1918, the new law, the Representation of the People Act 1918, was extended only to women over 30 who were married or who owned property.
The suffragists are not the same as the suffragettes, a more radical group of feminists including Emmeline Pankhurst, who also fought for women's right to vote.
Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested at a march organised by Pankhurst in1914.
The suffragettes were agitators who staged hunger strikes, vandalised art, and committed acts of violence to draw attention to their cause.
Suffragettes Annie Kenney and Mary Gawthorne painting a pavement with a slogan “Votes for Women”.
Nonetheless, both groups, whose aims were the same, were vital in winning some women the right to vote.
The suffragettes gave the cause urgency and huge amounts of publicity, while the suffragists did the boring but important work behind the scenes of winning over MPs.
In 1897, Millicent Fawcett established the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, drawing together various suffragette and suffragist groups, which she ran until she died in 1919.
So how come almost 100 years after her death, having helped make one of the most important changes for women in history, she's only just joining the gang of lauded lads outside parliament?
The statue of suffragist and women's rights campaigner Millicent Fawcett, by British artist Gillian Wearing, now stands in Parliament Square.
That's thanks to present-day feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, who in 2016 noticed there were no women commemorated in the famous square and has been pressurising the government to change that since.
From left: technician Chloe Hughes, London mayor Sadiq Khan, Caroline Criado-Perez, artist Gillian Wearing, and deputy mayor for culture and creative industries Justine Simons.
Criado-Perez was also behind the campaign to put Jane Austen on the £10 note, making her the first woman to appear on the reverse of that particular banknote.
Criado-Perez said she noticed there were no statues of women while jogging through Parliament Square on International Women's Day in 2016.
Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.
"I couldn't believe it. 'This is 2016!' I thought. 'How is it that no one has sorted this out yet? Someone should sort it out,'" she wrote for CNN.
Having received a torrent of online abuse following the Austen £10 note campaign, she initially had reservations about launching another one.
Years ago an article by @CCriadoPerez inspired me to join the @NoMorePage3 campaign. Later on she got Jane Austen on a banknote and this morning - the first woman statue unveiled in Parliament Sq. Courage calls to courage everywhere indeed thx Caroline 👏❤️⭐️ https://t.co/8teFZxMLwc
"But as I carried on running through St. James's Park, I couldn't get those 11 statues of men out of my head," she continued.
"As I rounded Green Park, I realised I was composing the campaign text in my head.
"When I came back around to Buckingham Palace, I gave in to the inevitable: I sat on the ground, and set up a petition on my phone."
Criado-Perez gathered more than 85,000 signatures in support of a female statue, and as part of a year celebrating 100 years since some women got the vote, the government decided to go ahead with one.
"Gillian Wearing’s beautiful sculpture gives Dame Millicent a long-overdue and permanent place in the heart of London — a city that, almost a century after her death, is in many ways a living testament to her life’s work," the prime minister wrote in the Evening Standard ahead of the statue's unveiling.
"The best way to honour Dame Millicent’s legacy is for all of us to continue the fight she led so many years ago — and I hope that the statue being unveiled tomorrow, standing in the heart of our capital and our democracy, will provide a constant reminder of the need to do so," May added.
Are statues really that important though? Well, yes, actually...
Over the last few years, important questions have been asked about who should and shouldn't be commemorated in such a celebratory way.
At Oxford University's Oriel College, an ongoing battle between students and university leaders has focused on a statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Many have called for the statue to be removed as part of a "decolonisation" of educational institutions.
Officers clash with counterprotesters after the Ku Klux Klan staged a protest on July 8, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee.
Last year race riots were sparked in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate leader Robert E Lee.
White supremacists violently opposed the removal of the statue of Lee, a member of one of the wealthiest slave-holding families in the 19th century, arguing that it censored history.
So yeah, updating historical statues is a pretty hot topic right now, and the women of the UK's parliament for one are pleased that the pioneer who helped get them there is finally being celebrated.
Some of our amazing @Conservatives women MPs at unveiling of #MillicentFawcett sculpture in Parliament Square today
There's a woman in Parliament Square! Brilliant work by so many campaigners @CCriadoPerez @SadiqKhan & first woman artist in the square Gillian Wearing https://t.co/Y3O9vpyFRb
I actually think this is the best statue in the square. It’s really beautiful as well as powerful. Well done to the artist Gillian Wearing for her great work. You did us proud! 👏👏👏 #MillicentFawcett https://t.co/YF1cSkJUGS
Proud to be at the #MillicentFawcett statue unveiling in Parliament Square. Hopefully the first of many more statues representing extraordinary women to be unveiled both around London and worldwide and an important step in acheiving equal representation for women
Loadsa women are pretty pumped, in fact.
And here she is. #MillicentFawcett Poignant and bittersweet. Women’s representation matters. I can’t believe we are still protesting this shit. 2018 and we are still celebrating ‘First woman to ........’ https://t.co/di9kKHGvzB
Atmosphere here in #parliamentsquare for unveiling of #MillicentFawcett statue Is buzzing! #BehindEveryGreatCity
And, of course, it only took 186 years.
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