East London Humanists reflect on the lack of statues of women, and champion a neglected local heroine, in this opinion piece (Newham Recorder 2 August 2018)<\/p>\n
There is much about Newham to be proud of. But did you know it\u2019s a trailblazer when it comes to feminist statues? Not that there\u2019s much competition. A recent survey found that, after excluding Queen Victoria, nymphs and angels, just 2% of statues in this country feature women of achievement. The overwhelming number of effigies of men which fill our public spaces speaks volumes about centuries of male dominance.<\/span><\/p>\n Pioneering females depicted by memorials in the Borough include Edith Kerrison. The first woman councilor for West Ham, her life is celebrated by a plaque with a relief portrait at The Grove in Stratford. East Ham Library has a bust of Elizabeth Fry,\u00a0 campaigner for prison reform and much else, and a resident of East Ham and Forest Gate from 1809 – 1844.\u00a0\u00a0 A sculpture depicting Joan Littlewood, the mother of modern British theatre, was unveiled outside the Theatre Royal in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n There is no shortage of other women who deserve the special enduring public recognition of a statue. One is Sarah xanax online<\/a> Chapman. Like so many women, her remarkable contribution and achievements have been shockingly neglected. Sarah was a prominent leader of the matchgirls\u2019 strike of 1888. The strike was a pivotal moment in the history of women\u2019s struggle and an important milestone in the birth of modern trade unionism.\u00a0 Sarah was elected the Matchmakers Union representative and was a delegate to the international Trade Union Congress of 1888.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah was buried aged 83 along with five others in a pauper\u2019s plot in Manor Park Cemetery in 1945. Due to the shortage of burial spaces there are plans to mound over the plot. A campaign to secure a permanent memorial to Sarah and to the matchgirls is spearheaded by Sarah\u2019s great granddaughter, Sam. * <\/span><\/p>\n Statues are important symbols. That\u2019s why we have them. A lasting memorial would help redress the historic sidelining of women.<\/span><\/p>\n Newham is now the first London Borough to have an elected woman mayor. A memorial to Sarah would help to reinforce Newham\u2019s place at the forefront of .women\u2019s slow march to equality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Paul Kaufman, Chair East London Humanists<\/strong><\/p>\n * Sam Johnson: samdearman0411@gmail.com<\/a> The petition to save Sarah’s grave is on Change.org – goo.gl\/Q41uLF<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" East London Humanists reflect on the lack of statues of women, and champion a neglected local heroine, in this opinion piece (Newham Recorder 2 August 2018)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9c4oP-rx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1708,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions\/1708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}