To mark International Women’s Day 2024, Becky Laxton-Bass, Company Director of Women of London, takes us on a trip back in time to discuss the pivotal events and pioneering female figures from around the capital that helped shape history.
Becky also shares some stories of lesser known groundbreaking women, the dangers of lost stories, and explains why more needs to be done to ensure women’s history is always remembered.
Research in 2021 found there were more statues of animals than named women in London, The Standard podcast asked Becky whether that had now changed in 2024.
Becky said: “I think it probably would still be the case, although I'm not 100% sure. Only because I'm not not familiar with many statues that have gone up across London in the last two years. I know quite a lot of plaques have gone up.
“Part of the problem is a lot of these statues; there's ones in the East campaigning for, the Match Girl Memorial, for example. There are ones for Sylvia Pankhurst, and ones to commemorate the women who were murdered by the serial killer Jack the Ripper.
“They cost a lot of money, and so there's crowdfunding being done, but it can take years and years for these things to happen, you need planning permission.
“The blue plaques are a way of building awareness in a more affordable way. I think we're now up to 15% of London's official blue plaques are of women. It's gone up 2% in five years or so.”
You can listen to the episode in the player above, find us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
