Moderator’s Note: This piece is in co-operation with The Nasty Women Writers Project, a site dedicated to highlighting and amplifying the voices and visions of powerful women. The site was founded by sisters Theresa and Maria Dintino. To quote Theresa, “by doing this work we are expanding our own writer’s web for nourishment and support.” This was originally posted on their site on March 4, 2025. You can see more of their posts here.
Out of forty monuments along the National Mall in Washington, DC, none celebrate women and their contribution to American history.
One of our NWW [Nasty Women Writers] categories is Breaking the Bronze Ceiling where we track the effort to increase the number of monuments dedicated to real women in public spaces.
I’ve made many trips to Washington, DC, trekking the National Mall specifically to visit monuments. Why didn’t I notice women were missing? Am I so conditioned to not seeing women recognized and honored at the highest levels that I don’t even expect it or question their absence?
I felt ignorant and complicit.
It’s 2025 and there is not a single monument to honor women on our National Mall, a place that “draws roughly 36 million visitors a year, more than Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon combined”(Schuessler).
It’s absurd and sadly, speaks volumes.
Because of this, I’ve struggled to write this article. But decided I have to because not recognizing the victories in the efforts to right this wrong doesn’t help. It’s critical to give credit and appreciation when and where it’s due. I aim to do that with this post: to spread the word and recognize those who have worked to establish the first monument to women on our National Mall.
Inspiration
In 2020, the sculpture titled Women’s Rights Pioneers depicting suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Susan B. Anthony was unveiled in New York City’s Central Park. Of twenty-three statues, it is the first one of real women in that popular public space. Read our post here: Breaking the Bronze Ceiling: One Inspiring Public Sculpture at a Time!
According to Jennifer Schuessler’s New York Times article “How a Monument to Women Finally Won a Place on the National Mall,” the idea for such a monument grew out of the Central Park addition.
To begin the process, a foundation was established to officially lobby for this new monument. According to their website, the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation was authorized by Congress in December 2020, not long after the Central Park unveiling. The Foundation, led by President & CEO Anna Laymon, has the support of all five living first women as Honorary Chairs: Melania Trump, Dr. Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Foundation also has an impressive Council of Ambassadors, including Joy Harjo, Ken Burns, Aly Raisman, Malcolm Gladwell, and many more. There’s a Council of Advisors and a Board of Directors as well.
The Foundation’s website, updated on March 1, 2025, a timely nod to Women’s History Month.
The Foundation’s updated mission statement:
Build a transformative monument on the National Mall that fosters a deeper understanding of the women who shaped American democracy and inspire the continued pursuit of liberty and equality for all.
Their Vision:
A National Mall that permanently weaves women’s triumphs into the monumental fabric of the nation’s capital.
Ban on the Mall
Backing up a bit, in 2003 it was determined that no more monuments would be allowed on the Mall because it was deemed too crowded. The Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial (authorized in 1996, opened in 2011) and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial (authorized in 1999, opened 2020) were exceptions due to the official plans and processes already underway.
Because of this overall ban, the National Park Service initially opposed the Foundation’s request, yet changed their mind due to “the exceptional nature of the subject matter that warrants consideration for placement there”(Schuessler).
From here, the Foundation had to clear more hurdles, and none of these happened quickly or easily. The article “A Women’s Monument Is Finally Coming To The National Mall” quotes Anna Laymon describing some of the pushback:
“We got told that there’s no room for you on the National Mall, which has more than 1,000 acres of green space. For this monument, we need one acre, and we heard, ‘Oh no, ladies, you’re asking for too much’”(Sairam).
Yet, with copious support and perseverance, the bill, dubbed the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Location Act, finally made its way to the Senate. Sponsors in the Senate were Tammy Baldwin, Democrat from Wisconsin and Marsha Blackburn, Republican from Tennessee. Schuessler’s article notes that, “It was a bipartisan team loaded with historical symbolism: Wisconsin was the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment, while Tennessee carried it over the line.”
Senators Baldwin and Blackburn: an historic moment, 12/20/2024.
Finally, on December 20, 2024, four years after the Foundation was established, and just under the wire of the 118th Congress, the bill passed the Senate unanimously allowing for an additional statue on the National Mall, one that would be designed to honor the women who fought for women’s suffrage and the ratification of the 19th amendment.
The Act was signed into law on January 4, 2025 by outgoing President Biden.
President Biden and Anna Laymon, CEO & President of the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation.
The Other Suffragist Monument
Some have heard about this but it was news to me.
In 1921, a large and significant sculpture of three notable suffragists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony, was unveiled in the Capitol during a ceremony celebrating the August 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Portrait Monument by Adelaide Johnson, unveiled in 1921.
The next day this sculpture was moved below the Capitol Rotunda into what was then a broom closet in the Crypt. It was ordered that the gold-leaf inscription “Woman first denied a soul, then called mindless, now arisen, declaring herself an entity to be reckoned,” be removed.
Feminist and sculptor Adelaide Johnson.
Jennifer Schuessler’s New York Times article from January 2025 mentions this turn of events, along with a picture. Wanting to know more about this and who the sculptor was, I found Lorriane Boissoneault’s Smithsonian Magazine article “The Suffragist Statue Trapped in a Broom Closet for 75 Years.” Boissoneault’s article discusses the reasons that this sculpture was banished. The article is worth the read, in part because of its humor. (Comic relief saved me from completely losing it over this fiasco.)
The fascinating feminist sculptor, Adelaide Johnson (1859-1955), explained that the fourth column of uncarved marble behind the women is for those unnamed in the fight as well as those taking up the torch behind the three greats. The incomplete appearance of the sculpture represents the unfinished work by women to achieve equal rights. Many deserve their likeness carved into that fourth column and the unfinished quality of the seven-ton block of marble goes without saying.
After repeated requests and seventy-seven years, the sculpture was moved back into the Rotunda in 1997.
What’s Next?
The Foundation’s Anna Laymon reports the next step is more fund-raising and the designation of where on the National Mall the monument will be installed. Then there will be a national design competition, one with inclusivity at the forefront.
At this point, it’s predicted that the monument will be unveiled in 2031 or 2032.
Laymon remarks, “I hope that when women finally see themselves represented in America’s front yard, its most visited national park site, we’ll all walk around and start asking ourselves, ‘Where are the women?’”
I certainly hope so, myself included.
© Maria Dintino 2025
Works Cited
Boissoneault, Lorraine. ”The Suffragist Statue Trapped in a Broom Closet for 75 Years: The Portrait Monument was a testament to women’s struggle for the vote that remained hidden till 1997.” Smithsonian Magazine, 12 May 2017. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/suffragist-statue-trapped-broom-closet-75-years-180963274/
Sairam, Erin Spencer. “A Women’s Monument Is Finally Coming To The National Mall.” Forbes, 8 Jan 2025. https://www.forbes.com/sites/erinspencer1/2025/01/08/a-womens-monument-is-finally-coming-to-the-national-mall/
Schuessler, Jennifer. “How a Monument to Women Finally Won a Place on the National Mall.” New York Times, 20 Jan 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/arts/womens-suffrage-national-monument.html
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