OUR MISSION
FIVE WELSH WOMEN • FIVE STATUES • FIVE YEARS
Our mission is inspired by the fact that in Wales, there was not one single public statue commemorating the achievements of real Welsh Women. Welsh girls can’t see what they could be. We aim to change this. We have now successfully delivered the iconic Betty Campbell Monument - but we have 4 more statues to deliver to complete our mission.
The Unveiling of the Betty Campbell Monument
We are delighted to announce the unveiling of the first monument to a named Welsh woman in Wales - the Betty Campbell Monument - took place outside the HMRC building near Central Square, Cardiff on Wednesday 29th September 2021.
Statues are very much in the news at the moment. The black lives matter movement has served to highlight the lack of diversity in our public monuments - something Monumental Welsh Women has been trying to put right for the last 5 years. We were delighted when our public vote for the first historical Welsh woman to be commemorated - and celebrated - with a statue, resulted in Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher and community activist receiving a huge number of votes. Now, her statue is under construction and will be unveiled in the autumn of 2021 - not just the first Welsh woman to be celebrated, but the first Welsh black woman.
Why do we think statues are important? In her recent book, Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez said, ‘I wasn’t being shown women I could look up to …I wasn’t being taught about female politicians, female activists, female writers, artists, lawyers, CEOs. All the people I was taught to admire were men, and so in my head power, influence and ambition equated with maleness.’
Our Mission is to normalise female ambition and success by celebrating and commemorating the achievements of great Welsh Women and inspiring the next generation of great Welsh women. Read on to see who we want to celebrate and how you can help.
5 statues - 5 Women - 5 years.