The answer to why Edinburgh has so few statues of women is basically one word: sexism. But it is especially embarrassing in Scotland’s capital, a city famed as the Athens of the North, chief jewel of the Scottish Enlightenment, a city which these days would pride itself on being fairly liberal and progressive, that we have more statues of dogs (2) than women (1). It is frankly unacceptable and in this article we will look into the other reasons for the lack, as well as some other candidates. Hopefully this will add to the conversation and we can get a few more Edinburgh statues of women. Eventually.
Why do statues matter?
Statues become part of the fabric of a city. They occupy a part of the public space. Land is at a premium in a city because they aren’t making more of it. Who we chose to celebrate therefore becomes a symbol. Who deserves to permanently take up space? Why them and not someone else?
As Patricia Ann-Young put it during the great statue debate of the early 20s: “statues are the stone, marble and steel on to which we carve our identities. They stand for the beliefs and values that bind us as a society“. If a city does not have statues that represent huge parts of the population, it is failing in one of the points of being a collection of many different communities. There’s a lot at stake. Do we want people growing up unaware that people like them have had an impact on the world?
The achievements of women generally are overlooked in world history, not just Scottish history. But that’s for people elsewhere to discuss. We’re focussing on Scotland in particular and Edinburgh specifically.
Wait a minute, there’s statues of women everywhere!
The Ross Fountain for example is covered in statues of women. There’s statues of women at the bottom, there are four statues of women in the middle to represent the Poetry, Science, Industry and Art, and at the very top there is a woman depicting Beauty. There’s lots of statues of women in Edinburgh!
This is a classic conundrum in the art world. Women are regularly depicted, but not often as people. Women get used in art to symbolise concepts, such as virtues. At the same time, they are often neglected from the record and as record-keepers.
“The answer lies in a much more recent past: for the past few millennia, the disciplines of history, archeology (sic), anthropology, and art itself have all been narrated and managed near-exclusively by men. The women who managed to “infiltrate” these disciplines were considered unique aberrations, and far apart from the norm. Men’s voices quite simply promoted an imagined history that was almost entirely populated by males.” – The Fem Word
So when we say there are more statues of dogs in Edinburgh than women, what we mean is more named dogs than named women who were not Queens.
Who are the dog statues and who is the women statue?
Statues of Dogs #1 – Greyfriars Bobby
Greyfriars Bobby, who I should write about at some point, has a very prominent statue in the city centre. He was a dog who, the story goes, stayed on his master’s grave for 14 years after death. He was fed pies by a local baker. He was adored by all the people of the city. He chased away the feral cats who populated the graveyard to feast on the dead. His story has since been made into two films, one involving Maggie Smith. Truly, he is an iconic dog and if any dog in the world deserved a statue it is him. He has become a regular story on free walking tours of Edinburgh.
Statues of Dogs #2 – Bum
Now it’s a lovely statue of a dog, I will give it that. But Bum is one of these statues which I’m just not sure if we need it as a statement of identity.
For a while, back in the 70s we were twinned with San Diego and swapped dog statues. Bum had a somewhat similar story. The problem is that I’ve talked to San Diegons and they have no idea who Bum is. Meanwhile, Bobby is incredibly well-known in Edinburgh. I fancy you couldn’t find a single person living here who has never heard of Greyfriars Bobby.
Fair enough, at the end of the day, that Bum marked a moment in our history. It seems particularly insulting for women though when there is literally a single statue of a named woman in Edinburgh. Who is she?
Statues of Women #1 – Helen Crummy
“HELEN Crummy was one of those rare individuals whose innate modesty concealed an iron determination to change the world for the better, above all for the poor and marginalised. Where some might see the victims of poverty as part of an endemic social problem, she saw the unfulfilled potential of people who, given the opportunity, could overcome disadvantage and find self-esteem.” – The Scotsman
The featured picture for this article is a photograph of the Helen Crummy statue. She was a woman who lived an incredible life. Born in Leith in 1920, she moved to a council estate, government housing for non-Brits, in 1931. She was in her 40s when she tried getting the headteacher at her son’s school to teach him how to play the violin. The headteacher responded that they had enough to do with teaching the kids basic skills and there was no room for art on the curriculum.
Helen decided to make the Craigmillar Arts Festival in 1962 to show off talented children. This Arts Festival became well-known and she wrote a book on the topic. As founder and organising secretary of the group she kept it moving and growing.
Getting into her full life would be too detailed, but I’d encourage you to read the link above to her obituary in the Scotsman. She lived a full life which was equally full of setbacks and difficulties as triumphs and success. She cared about people and didn’t want them to be wasted due to them not having opportunities in life. She absolutely deserves a statue and her story is inspiring. She is one of the best argument for more statues of women because working class girls seeing that they don’t have to limit themselves is valuable. Crummy shows that life does not have to stop and you can start a new part of life whenever you want. Community leaders are often the best of us and that’s what Helen Crummy is best described as.
Is she the only women deserving of a statue in Edinburgh’s 3000 year history?
Statues of Women #2 – Elsie Inglis (Pending)
Elsie Inglis is the classic Edinburgh woman who deserves a statue. Born in 1864 in British North India, she was of the second wave of medical women in Edinburgh, following the Edinburgh Seven. She trained at the Medical School set up by Sophia Jex-Blake, the first woman to matriculate at a UK university for medicine, but found Jex-Blake stubborn and intractable (as you’d probably expect of a pioneer). Inglis founded her own medical school with the help of her dad who was very wealthy.
This school outlived Sophia Jex-Blake’s by a decade which somewhat shows that Elsie Inglis was onto something.
Elsie Inglis specialised in women’s health, a much neglected field, and helped to make birth safer for working class and poor people at her own maternity hospital.
All that would already likely qualify her for a statue but Inglis’ story ramps up a level when she tried to join the British Army during the First World War to help with medical provision. She was told to “Go home and sit still”, but instead she went off to found a number of military hospitals, staffed by women. She recruited 1500 people and had women working all across the Europe for allied nations.
She was particularly beloved in Serbia, a country where she helped during a massive typhus outbreak. Serbia lost 1/6th (16%) of its population in the Great War, they were grateful for the help. Elsie Inglis was the first woman granted the Order of the White Eagle, amongst the highest honours given at the time.
It’s an amazing life and absolutely deserves to be commemorated with a statue.
Where is Elsie Inglis’ statue?
It turns out, making statues is not easy. After all, they are designed to be permanent additions to the city. They need to be made of the highest quality materials and the design has to be something timeless that will age gracefully.
The campaign to build her a statue began pre-Covid, in 2017 on the centenary of her death. A Statue of Elsie Inglis gained funds from crowdsourcing as well as some larger donations. Talks began with local authorities to find a good location, outside her old maternity hospital. A competition was held to decide who would make the momentous statue.
Then the Queen died. Her funeral procession in Edinburgh was going to run past the intended location of this statue. The competition to design the statue, at that point at the shortlist stage with 3 sculptors making their miniature versions, was cancelled. The contestants were not apologised to, and instead the King’s Sculptor in Ordinary in Scotland was picked without having submitted to the contest.
The King’s Sculptor in Ordinary in Scotland is a man named Alexander Stoddart, and there were accusations of Royal interference in what was intended to be a feminist action. After all, Elsie Inglis was a suffragist and women’s rights activist. It’s a complicated piece of local politics and discussion,
I just wish there was a bit more speed about it. It’s embarrassing telling people about how little respect the city seems to have for our women.
Other ideas for statues of women in Edinburgh
We have had a great many women who have had impacts on history who deserve commemoration. Here’s a small sample:
Maggie Dickson, a perhaps tall tale of a woman who survived a hanging and went on to have a successful life.
Jenny Geddes, the woman who reportedly threw a chair which sparked the Bishops Wars, the National Covenant and the English Civil War if you stretch causation a bit.
The Edinburgh Seven, all of them to really take our tally of women statues up a bit quicker.
Chrystal Macmillan, a suffragist and international activist whose ideas for the peace settlement of the Great War ended up inspiring Woodrow Wilson.
Muriel Spark, who wrote several well-loved books including ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’.
At one point there was discussion to have a statue made of JK Rowling. This has since fallen by the wayside.
One argument against the Rowling statue when it was first suggested was that we traditionally wait till people are dead in this city before giving them statues. One person who sadly died recently but who did have a great effect on the city, also Harry Potter adjacent, would be Maggie Smith.
So those are our immediate ideas from the Street Historians team, but who would you like to commemorate?
The writer of this piece was a feminist before he had a daughter.
If you’re a woman in Edinburgh you might be interested in our hot chocolate list.
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