Dr. Helen Rodríguez Trías (the Bronx, in St. Mary’s Park)

In the 1980s, she developed programs for families affected by H.I.V. at the state’s AIDS Institute. She also became the first Latina director of the American Public Health Association.

Katherine Walker (Staten Island, on the ferry landing)

She spent nearly three decades as the keeper of the Robbins Reef Lighthouse, lighting the way for ships between Staten Island and Bayonne, N.J., in the early 1900s. Historians credit her with helping to save at least 50 lives.

[Read about 10 women who readers said should be honored with statues.]

Whom else should New York City honor?

My colleague Ginia Bellafante, who has written extensively about gender and the city, told me that “the city shouldn’t get too self-congratulatory about all of this,” referring to the new statues.

The city, she said, should focus not just on women who are famous pioneers, but its fameless everyday heroes.

“New York worships too hard at the altar of exceptionalism,” she said, adding that people should be reminded of the millions of women who keep the city running.

So, which women should we be celebrating?

“The struggling mom who has three jobs and travels an hour to get her kid to a great school every day; the nannies and cleaning women who make it possible for affluent women to go to work in hospitals, courtrooms, universities, law firms; the home health aides and preschool teachers and waitresses who keep everything humming.”