Monuments, Statues, and Commemorations of Women

Monuments, Statues, and Commemorations of Women examines the heritage messages presented by statuary monuments, focusing on statues and monuments of women and exploring the challenges involved in depicting the key role played by women across different societies.

The chapters within the volume examine the motives behind – and impediments to – the installation and commemoration of women around the world from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Describing the role androcentrism has played in the great predominance of statues memorializing men, the book argues that the lack of statues of accomplished women renders their achievements invisible by erasing them from the past. In describing the identity of the kinds of women who are represented in heritage landscapes, the authors use diverse perspectives to evaluate the roles of race, class, ethnicity, gender, and religion and consider how they impact what kinds of women are represented on or in heritage landscapes. Case studies from Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America explore and analyze the statues and monuments of women of color, white women, and LGBTQ+ women.

Monuments, Statues, and Commemorations of Women is essential reading for academics and students working in the fields of archaeology, and feminist studies, cultural heritage, history, and art history.