Female elected officials on Monday called on the city to add more more statues of women around the five boroughs — beyond the 11-month extension granted to the popular “Fearless Girl” near Wall Street.
“Women don’t see themselves represented in the streets of New York,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. “We have sculptures and art of a lot of men and that needs to change.”
Brewer said a bronze honoring women suffragists at 77th and Central Park West is “our next step.”
There are only 5 statues dedicated to women — of some 150 citywide.
The women honored are Joan of Arc; Israeli leader Golda Meir; writer Gertrude Stein; Eleanor Roosevelt and Harriet Tubman.
Brewer joined Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) and Public Advocate Letita James on the steps of City Hall Monday with “Fearless Girl” artist Kristen Visbal and a rep from State Street Global Advisors, who conceived the 50-inch bronze placed opposite “Charging Bull.”
Mayor de Blasio said the statue, which was scheduled to be removed on Sunday, would be allow to stay in place until at least February 2018.
Maloney and James agreed women are poorly represented in art throughout the city and the country.
“The importance of empowering is not temporary,” said James, calling on de Blasio to make “Fearless Girl” permanent because the sassy portrayal of a little girl staring down a raging animal represents to women that “no dream is too low and no ceiling is too high.”
Maloney is actively working to create a women’s museum in Washington.
“There is not one museum dedicated to the advancement of women,” she said, adding that “Fearless Girl” is an artistic symbol that the world could use more of.