A SHORT THREAD CONCERNING STATUES:

There are more statues of goats than of Black women in the UK. (1/7)

Now, we love goats. But have they contributed as much to this country as Black women? No.

(We believe there are only two statues of named Black women - Mary Seacole and Floella Benjamin). (2/7)

There are more statues of pigs than of Muslim women in the UK. (3/7)

Now, we adore pigs. But have they done as much for this country as Muslim women? No.

(We understand there's only one statue of a Muslim woman - Noor Inayat Khan.) (4/7)

There are more statues of men called John than of non-mythical non-royal women in the UK. (5/7)

Now, we, errr, generally don't mind men called John. But have they made more impact on this country than all women in history ever? No. (6/7)

The lives we choose to record with statues say a lot about what we value as a society.

Even though more statues of women have gone up in the last couple of years, the balance is still way, way, WAY off.

Now is a good time for that to change. (7/7)

Sources incl: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06kldhv (in which they find there are approximately four goat statues).

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2016/03/i-sorted-uk-s-statues-gender-mere-27-cent-are-historical-non-royal-women - @CCriadoPerez's original 2016 piece.

http://www.pmsa.org.uk/news/2019/3/7/more-monuments-to-women - a more recent follow up from 2018, detailing new statues.

Research note: estimates of statue demographics vary owing to which dataset was used and when. We found six statues of women erected since 2018, with more to come (local legends @sylviastatue and @maryonthegreen, while Betty Campbell is set to be the 3rd named Black woman)...

Still nowhere near the number of Johns, mind

Thanks to @HerstoricalMnts for telling us about the statue of Dame Kelly Holmes, which makes the third of a named Black woman by our reckoning. (Alas, still not as many as goats.) Do let us know if there are others we've missed.