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City daily launches bid to celebrate patch’s most famous women

A city daily has launched a campaign to celebrate the greatest women of its patch’s history.

The Edinburgh Evening News is calling for more statues of the Scottish capital’s most noteworthy women to be built, after revealing there are currently more statues of animals than human females there.

The News launched its campaign on yesterday’s front page – suggesting the likes of anti-slavery campaigner Eliza Wigham and authors JK Rowling and Muriel Spark could be among those to be honoured with a sculpture.

Last month the Yorkshire Evening Post marked International Women’s Day by calling for a notable Leeds woman to be honoured in statue form.

Edinburgh women

A piece launch the EEN’s campaign by reporter Fiona Pringle reads: “Bizarrely, there are more statues of animals than women in Edinburgh. Does that matter? Well, yes, it does. And not just because of the message that it sends out to our children and visitors.

“It is not the actual statues and grand public buildings named after men that count. It is the stories that we tell each other and the next generation that really matter.”

Fiona added: “This November marks 100 years since the death of Elsie Inglis, the great medical pioneer and suffragette. Will future generations remember her? It is hard to be sure.

“Just four years ago we were reporting in this newspaper on how her grave in Dean Cemetery had been neglected to the point where the inscription was barely legible.

“A generation from now her inspirational life story may already have faded from popular memory, consigned to dusty history books.

“There are countless women like her whose remarkable lives face being airbrushed from history. It is time that we put that right. It is time to celebrate the achievements of Edinburgh’s women just as well as we do those of our men.”