Mary Wollstonecraft honoured with statue 200 years after her death

Campaign to fund work ran for 10 years, but naked female figure has attracted criticism

Maggi Hambling’s ‘A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft’ unveiled on Newington Green, London (Ioana Marinescu)

A feminist icon has been honoured with a sculpture in north London more than 200 years after her death - but the design has sparked criticism.

Mary Wollstonecraft, who has been dubbed the “mother of feminism”,  has been honoured with the statue, which has been created by sculptor Maggi Hambling and will be unveiled on Tuesday evening in north London.

The sculpture is cast in silvered bronze and features a naked woman emerging with strength from an amalgamation of other female bodies, while a quote from Ms Wollstonecraft is featured on the base. 

It says: “I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves.”

A campaign has been running for 10 years to have a statue placed in Newington Green, where Ms Wollstonecraft opened up a girl’s boarding school when she was 25-years-old. A target to raise £143,300 for its creation was reached in 2019 following donations from charities and fundraisers.

However, the artwork has been criticised as “disrespectful” by some for representing a naked female figure.

Author and campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, who led successful calls for Jane Austen to be pictured on the £10 note, described the statue as “so so disappointing”.

She said: “Been trying to bite my tongue on this, but actually, I can't … What a colossal waste. So so disappointing. Sorry I can't be supportive.”

Writer Tracy King said the statue was “massively regressive” and “a shocking waste of an opportunity”.

“How can women’s achievements and legacies be taken seriously when we’re being distracted by goddamn tits,” she tweeted.

Some commentators believed that the naked woman was supposed to be Ms Wollstonecraft herself. But the campaigners have previously stated the work is instead meant to represent all women.

They said: “The sculpture combines female forms which commingle and rise together as if one, culminating in the figure of a woman standing free. She is Everywoman, her own person, ready to confront the world.

"As opposed to traditional male heroic statuary, the free-standing woman has evolved organically from, is supported by, and does not forget, all her predecessors who advocated, campaigned and sacrificed themselves for women’s emancipation.”

Ms Hambling echoed these thoughts, saying that critics misunderstood her work.

"My sculpture, I hope, celebrates the spirit of Mary Wollstonecraft. It certainly isn't a historical likeness," she told the PA news agency.

She said those who have criticised it "are not reading the word, the important word, which is on the plinth quite clearly: 'for' Mary Wollstonecraft. It's not 'of' Mary Wollstonecraft."

She added: "Clothes define people. As she's every woman, I'm not defining her in any particular clothes. It's not a conventional heroic or heroinic likeness of Mary Wollstonecraft. It's a sculpture about now, in her spirit. 

"The female figure at the top is open and challenging the world. It's the ongoing battle - a woman ready to challenge the world."

Author Bee Rowlatt, who headed the campaign for a sculpture honouring the activist, said: "Mary Wollstonecraft was a rebel and a pioneer, and she deserves a pioneering work of art. There's no question that Maggi Hambling is a challenging artist, and this work is certainly not your average statue. 

"Of course we want to start a conversation, the more people that find out about Mary Wollstonecraft, the better. The sculpture does not depict Mary naked, as some people are saying, because it doesn't depict Mary at all. It's called A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft. 

“The figure is representative of the birth of a movement. She was the foremother of feminism. This work is an attempt to celebrate her contribution to society with something that goes beyond the Victorian traditions of putting people on pedestals. ”

Born in 1759, Ms Wollstonecraft was an early champion of human rights. Her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792, called for gender equality a century ahead of the suffragettes, prompting Millicent Fawcett to describe her as “the leader in that battle”.

She married twice and had two children, one of who was Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Ms Wollstonecraft died in 1797, a few days after giving birth to Mary, due to complications following childbirth.

Ms Rowlatt said of the campaign: “Wollstonecraft’s political legacy is huge – her ideas changed the world. It took courage to fight for human rights and education for all, even more so for someone of Wollstonecraft’s gender and background. But following her early death in childbirth her legacy was buried, in a sustained misogynistic attack. Today we are finally putting this injustice to rights.”

Discussing her statue, Ms Hambling said: “This sculpture encourages a visual conversation with the obstacles Wollstonecraft overcame, the ideals she strived for, and what she made happen. A vital contemporary discourse for all that is still to be achieved.”

To watch a live stream of the unveiling, visit @MaryWOnTheGreen on Facebook and @maryonthegreen on Twitter.