Could it be that a new statue - of a woman - might be erected in Glasgow?

I know, it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? After all, the city already has a surplus of female commemorative sculptures - Queen Victoria in George Square, Lady Isabella Elder in Govan, and La Pasionara on the Clyde Walkway. 

But despite having an excessive THREE statues, it does look as though a fourth is in the pipeline, with the news that the council has endorsed a campaign to erect a monument to their first woman councillor - working class heroine, Mary Barbour. Born in 1875, she became one of the first female magistrates, and fought for equal rights for workers, free milk for schoolchildren, pensions for mothers, municipal banks, wash houses, public baths, and on and on.

Yes, her achievements are impressive, but don’t the people behind this campaign realise that they need to put the brakes on? There was a gap of just 52 years between the Queen Victoria (1854) and Isabella Elder (1906) statues. Yes, just five decades. It was a slightly more acceptable 73 years later that the Pasionara statue was unveiled, in 1979. But, if the Mary Barbour plans go through, we could see her memorial in place by 2015, marking the centenary of the rent strikes. That would mean - please sit down, I’ve done the arithmetic - a mere 36 years between statues.

Frankly, this pace of change is unacceptable. As well as this project, there’s the Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland website, run by Women’s History Scotland and the Glasgow Women’s Library. This encourages members of the public to log lost or forgotten plaques, street names and memorials to women who have contributed to civic society.

Unavoidably, such activities will result in human beings of the female persuasion being acknowledged, even celebrated, for their achievements. In Scotland. In the 21st century.

I dread to think what could follow. An all-woman judging panel deciding on the future of Glasgow’s George Square? Pass me the smelling salts. Imagine the fiasco that could result from that!

 

It’s not easy keeping an arts production company together on limited resources, so it’s great to see Right Lines, a writer-led company based in the north of Scotland, going from strength to strength.Over the years, they’ve produced successful musical comedy productions that have toured the country, including The Wedding and the brilliantly-named Accidental Death of an Accordionist.

You can see them tackle grittier material in their new play, Be Silent Or Be Killed, based on the story of Aberdeen businessman, Roger Hunt, who spent 40 hours under siege in his hotel room during the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008. It’s on in Glenrothes, Findhorn, Paisley and Aberdeen.

Also well worth catching - the latest in the Migration Stories exhibition programme at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, which explores the visual culture of migration - is by Valentina Bonizzi. A small but thought-provoking exhibition of photographs, documents and films, focusing on different generations of Scots-Italian women.