A historic statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett will be unveiled in Parliament Square on Tuesday 24 April 2018 - and everyone’s invited.
The statue has been commissioned by Mayor Sadiq Khan to mark 100 years since the first British women won the right to vote. It will be the first monument to a woman to stand in the square.
Designed by Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing OBE, the bronze statue is also the first designed by a woman to stand in Parliament Square.
The statue depicts Fawcett holding a banner with her rallying call, ‘Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere,’ and features the names and portraits of 59 individuals who campaigned for women’s suffrage inscribed on its plinth.
The Mayor will be attending the unveiling with other guests including Caroline Criado Perez, whose petition to get the first statue of a woman in Parliament Square was signed by almost 85,000 people along with journalist Mishal Husain, Helen McCrory and poet Theresa Lola.
Throughout 2018, City Hall is marking the centenary of women’s suffrage with its #BehindEveryGreatCity campaign, which celebrates the achievements made on gender equality over the past century while pushing for greater progress.
The statue of Fawcett will stand alongside statues of major world figures including Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.
The unveiling takes place at 11am to 12pm on 24 April, and you can arrive a little earlier to make sure you get a space. Read more details on our Facebook page.
Commissioned by the Mayor of London with 14-18 NOW, Firstsite and Iniva to commemorate the Centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, through the Government’s national centenary fund.
