Monumental Welsh Women is a project to provide the first five statues of real Welsh women in Wales. [1] It was started by a group of women, including Helen Molyneux, in 2016 and later became formalised as the not-for-profit Monumental Welsh Women Ltd. They work with other organisations, such as public art specialist group Studio Response, to raise funds and commission the statues. [2]
Following publicity and public consultations, a short-list was drawn up. The final five were chosen and there was a series about them on the BBC in 2019. [3]
The women selected were:
Plaid Cymru is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. It campaigns on a platform of social democracy and civic nationalism. The party is a supporter of the European Union and is a member of the European Free Alliance (EFA). The party holds 4 of 32 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, 12 of 60 seats in the Senedd, and 202 of 1,231 principal local authority councillors. Plaid was formed in 1925 under the name Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru and Gwynfor Evans won the first Westminster seat for the party at the 1966 Carmarthen by-election.
Ian Watkins, known by his stage name H, is a Welsh singer and actor. He is a member of the British pop group Steps.
Rhondda Cynon Taf is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff and Ely valleys, plus several towns and villages away from the valleys.
Glynneath is a town, community and electoral ward lying on the River Neath in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It was formerly in the historic county of Glamorgan. Glynneath ward covers only part of the community, with some 840 electors included in the neighbouring ward of Blaengwrach.
Elaine Morgan OBE, FRSL, was a Welsh writer for television and the author of several books on evolutionary anthropology. She advocated the aquatic ape hypothesis, which advocated as a corrective to what she saw as theories that purveyed gendered stereotypes and failed to account for women's role in human evolution adequately. The Descent of Woman, published in 1972, became an international bestseller, translated into ten languages. In 2016, she was named one of "the 50 greatest Welsh men and women of all time" in a press survey.
Elizabeth Andrews OBE JP was a Welsh politician and suffragist who was the first woman organiser of the Labour Party in Wales.
Tylorstown is a village and community located in the Rhondda valley, in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It is neighboured by the villages of Blaenllechau, Ferndale, Penrhys, Pontygwaith and Stanleytown.
Leighton Andrews is an academic and former Welsh Labour politician. He was the National Assembly for Wales member for Rhondda from 2003 until 2016. He was Minister for Children, Education & Lifelong Learning from 2009 to 2011, then Minister for Education and Skills in the Welsh Government until his resignation on 25 June 2013 after an alleged conflict between his own departmental policy and his active campaigning to save a school in his constituency. In September 2014 he returned to the government as Minister for Public Services.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Wales, part of UK Liberal Democrats. The party is led by Jane Dodds, who has served as an MS for Mid and West Wales since May 2021. The party currently has one elected member in the Senedd and one Welsh seat in the UK House of Commons. It also has several members of the House of Lords. The party had 69 local councillors serving in principal authorities as of the 2022 local authority elections, up 10 from 2017.
Henry Seymour Berry, 1st Baron Buckland, was a Welsh financier and industrialist.
Penrhys is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, situated on a hillside overlooking both valleys of Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach. It is situated around 1,100 ft above sea level and is a district of Tylorstown. Until the late 16th century and once again since Catholic Emancipation in 1829, Penrhys has been an important Christian pilgrimage site.
Helen Jane Ward is a former international football striker who last played club football for Watford. Ward previously spent three seasons with Chelsea Ladies, whom she joined from Arsenal in 2010. Born in the London Borough of Brent, Ward began her career with 14 years at Watford Ladies where she was a prolific goal scorer and team captain.
Margaret Haig Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda was a Welsh peeress, businesswoman and active suffragette who was significant in the history of women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.
Sarah Jane Rees, also known by the bardic name "Cranogwen", was a Welsh teacher, poet, editor, master mariner and temperance campaigner. She had two romantic friendships with women, first with 'Phania' Fanny Rees, until her death from tuberculosis, then with Jane Thomas, for most of the rest of Rees's life.
Betty Campbell was a Welsh community activist, who was Wales' first black head teacher. Born into a poor household in Butetown, she won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff. Campbell later trained as a teacher, eventually becoming head teacher of Mount Stuart Primary School in Butetown, Cardiff. She put into practice innovative ideas on the education of children and was actively involved in the community.
Helen Molyneux is a Welsh lawyer who founded and was the CEO of the UK personal injury law firm NewLaw Solicitors. In 2024 she had led the installation of three new statues of leading Welsh women and she became one of the BBC's 100 Women.
Alexandra Davies-Jones is a Welsh Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontypridd since 2019. She has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Victims since July 2024. She previously served as Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding from November 2023 to July 2024.
A statue of Betty Campbell sculpted by Eve Shepherd was unveiled in Central Square, Cardiff, Wales, in 2021. Betty Campbell had been the first black head teacher in Wales.
Jane Robbins is a sculptor. She works in cast bronze, resin and also other materials, primarily to make figurative and portrait sculptures. Her sculptures have been commissioned as public art in the UK as well as private works.