London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 13, 2025

Mary Wollstonecraft statue: 'Mother of feminism' sculpture provokes backlash

Mary Wollstonecraft statue: 'Mother of feminism' sculpture provokes backlash

A memorial to the "mother of feminism" has provoked an online backlash after being unveiled in north London.

The sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft by artist Maggi Hambling CBE went on display on Newington Green, Islington, on Tuesday.

Born in London in 1759, Wollstonecraft was an 18th Century author and radical who promoted the rights of women.

The silvered-bronze sculpture has drawn criticism from some who have queried the inclusion of a naked female figure.

Bee Rowlatt, chair of the Mary on the Green campaign for a statue, said: "Her ideas changed the world. It took courage to fight for human rights and education for all.

"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.

"Mary Wollstonecraft was a rebel and a pioneer, and she deserves a pioneering work of art.

"This work is an attempt to celebrate her contribution to society with something that goes beyond the Victorian traditions of putting people on pedestals."



The statue is believed to be the world's first memorial sculpture in honour of Mary Wollstonecraft


The unveiling is the culmination of a decade of campaigning to raise the £143,000 required to create the statue.

The statue is already on display, and an unveiling ceremony was live-streamed at 19:00 GMT.

It portrays a silver female figure emerging from a swirling mingle of female forms.

More than 90% of London's monuments celebrate men, compared to a population of 51% women, according to the campaign.

'Disrespectful'


However, it has been met with criticism for its symbolic depiction of a female figure, rather than being a lifelike representation of Wollstonecraft.

Some have also queried the decision to make the figure naked.

Writer Caitlin Moran claimed a better representation of a naked "everywoman" would be of "Wollstonecraft dying, at 38, in childbirth, as so many women did back then - ending her revolutionary work."

"That would make me think, and cry," she tweeted.


Writer Tracy King tweeted: "There is no reason to depict Mary naked unless you are trying to be edgy to provoke debate.

"Statues of named men get to be clothed because the focus is on their work and achievements.

"Meanwhile, women walking or jogging through parks experience high rates of sexual harassment because our bodies are considered public property."

Caroline Criado Perez, who campaigned for Jane Austen to appear on the £10 note, said the statue "feels disrespectful to Wollstonecraft herself".

Historian Simon Schama wrote that he "always wanted a fine monument to Wollstonecraft - this isn't it".

Who was Mary Wollstonecraft?


Wollstonecraft was born into prosperity in 1759, but her father, a drunk, squandered the family money.

Like her mother, she often suffered abuse at his hands.

As a woman, Wollstonecraft received little formal education but she set out to educate herself and at 25 opened a girls' boarding school on Newington Green, near the site of the statue.

Wollstonecraft was 33 when she wrote her most famous work "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" which imagined a social order where women were the equals of men.

She mixed with the intellectual radicals of the day - debating with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and Joseph Priestley.

She died aged 38 following the birth of her daughter, the author Mary Shelley.

Ms Hambling has hit back at those who criticise her art work.

She said: "This sculpture encourages a visual conversation with the obstacles Ms Wollstonecraft overcame, the ideals she strived for, and what she made happen."

The Suffolk-based artist said her critics "are not reading the word, the important word, which is on the plinth, quite clearly 'for' Mary Wollstonecraft, it's not 'of' Mary Wollstonecraft.

"Clothes define people and restrict people, they restrict people's reaction. She's naked and she's every woman.

"Most male historic statues are way over life-size. My point was that the female figure doesn't need to dominate to be powerful.

"It's been compared to a rocket of hope going up to the sky, tracking the fight for female empowerment Wollstonecraft started."


The statue shows a silver female figure emerging from a swirling mingle of female forms


Others have praised the statue. On Twitter historian Dr Fern Riddle said she "loved" the design.

"It reminds me of Metropolis crossed with the birth of Venus," she said.

"I don't see 'me' in that figure, but I wouldn't see 'me' in a figurine of a fully dressed Mary either. I just like that it's here, and that anyone can interpret it how they want."

Historian Dr Sophie Coulombeau said she hopes those "with a very strong opinion" on the statue would also read Wollstonecraft's work.

"She's a lot weirder and ickier and more surreal than most [people] realise," Dr Coulombeau said.

"I think Hambling gets that."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
×