‘Bronze ceiling’ for author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman should go, say MPs

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and his deputy, Tom Watson, have teamed up with dozens of men, including high-profile actors, comedians and trade union leaders, to call for one of Britain’s earliest feminists to be memorialised.

Mary Wollstonecraft must finally have her statue Read more

The politicians are among over 40 men signing a letter to the Guardian saying the time has come to break the “bronze ceiling” and celebrate the extraordinary life of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Signatories including Andrew Adonis and the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Vince Cable, the actors Sam West and Jason Isaacs, and the union leaders John Hannett and Tim Roache argue that she was the “first to call for gender equality, over 250 years ago”. They say that Wollstonecraft, who has been described as Britain’s first feminist, challenged philosophers and politicians at the time when she set out a vision of equality in her book.

The men are following in the footsteps of more than 80 female politicians, academics and public figures who demanded a statue be built to honour the pioneering figure last year. A campaign called Mary on the Green has fought to commemorate her at Newington Green in London.

But some have even argued that she is the “mother of women’s equality” and would have been a better choice than the suffragist Millicent Fawcett, whose statue will be unveiled in Parliament Square next month. In the centenary year of women’s suffrage, government money is also being spent on a new statue of the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst – who already has a memorial in Westminster – in Manchester.

Watson, Corbyn and the other signatories say: “Mary Wollstonecraft was neither privileged nor formally educated, but she achieved greatness and became a leader of ideas in her own time. She remains so in ours.

“Statues of those she influenced, including Millicent Fawcett, Thomas Paine and William Gladstone, will stand proud in our squares.



“Please join our call to break the ‘bronze ceiling’ and celebrate the extraordinary life and legacy of Mary Wollstonecraft.”