Women's Rights Pioneer Monument

The Women's Rights Pioneers Monument is the first monument in Central Park to honor real-life women.

Location: MAP | Mid-Park at 68th Street

The monument was unveiled on August 26, 2020, commemorating the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s ratification and its certification, also known as the Women’s Right to Vote.

This 14-foot-tall bronze statue depicts three pivotal women’s rights advocates: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth.

Susan B. Anthony was a social reformer and women’s rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting. She was tried and fined $100 for her crime, which made many people angry and brought national attention to the suffrage movement.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an abolitionist, human rights activist and one of the first leaders of the woman’s rights movement. Her speeches addressed such topics as maternity, child rearing, divorce law, married women’s property rights, temperance, abolition, and presidential campaigns.

Anthony and Stanton co-founded the American Equal Rights Association.

Sojourner Truth was an abolitionist and women’s rights activist who was born into slavery in Ulster County, New York. Her impromptu speech at a Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio was later popularized during the Civil War by the title “Ain’t I a Woman” - an edited variation of the original speech. In 2014, Truth was included in Smithsonian magazine's list of the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time”.

All three women died before women were given the right to vote.

The statue was conceived and funded by Monumental Women, an all-volunteer led non-profit made up of women's rights advocates, historians, and community leaders.  Meredith Bergmann, a nationally renowned artist, created the sculpture after being chosen from 91 submissions.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was on hand at the unveiling ceremony.