Women, Memory and the Future of Public Space: Rethinking Monuments, Heritage, and Representation

Whose Stories Shape Our Cities?

On International Women’s Day, cities around the world celebrate the achievements of women who have shaped society. Yet if we look closely at our public spaces — the squares, parks, and streets that tell the story of our shared past — women are still largely absent.

In Denmark, only about one in ten statues depicts a woman. A recent research initiative highlighted this imbalance by identifying more than 100 Danish women whose contributions could be recognized with statues across Danish cities. The project is an important step toward addressing long-standing gaps in representation.

It also opens a larger conversation. While we ask which women deserve statues, we can also question the process and form by which people and histories are commemorated in the public realm today. Are statues the best way to honor women? Or history? And who else is missing? 

Cities are not static. They are living, ever changing environments where people move, gather, and encounter layers of history as part of everyday life. The ways in which we learn about the histories of a place come through in more than historical markers. If we rethink commemoration through this lens, monuments must become more than ornamentation. They become part of the civic infrastructure that shapes how memory, identity, and belonging are experienced in the city.

“In Denmark only one out of ten statues represent women. As urbanists, we have a responsibility to rethink how cities tell their stories — and ensure more people see themselves reflected in them.”

Helle Søholt, Chair and Founder, Gehl

Rethinking Commemoration in the Public Realm: Beyond Statues and Landmarks

For generations, monuments have followed a familiar formula: a statue of an individual figure elevated on a pedestal, placed in a prominent square. These monuments often celebrate singular men and narratives of heroism and triumph. They are meant to be viewed from a distance, not at eye level. 

Research into commemorative landscapes shows how narrow this model is. A national Monument audit from the US reveals that public monuments overwhelmingly depict white male figures and dominant historical narratives. In Denmark, the new report “Flere kvinder i kunsten i det offentlige rum [More Women in Art in Public Spaces]” also documents historical bias (it goes further too and provides a list of 100 women of particular national importance). 

History itself is rarely singular. Cities hold overlapping histories — movements, communities, cultural traditions, and everyday acts that shape civic life. It’s often these overlaps that make places interesting – and what can be so hard to create in new developments. 

New Forms of Public Memory

Increasingly, designers, historians, artists, and cities are exploring ways to represent this complexity. With their $500 Million USD commitment, the Mellon Foundation is leading this work in the United States through the Monuments Project. The over 80 projects that have been funded illustrate in real time that commemoration can take many forms: landscapes, installations, walking routes, performances, storytelling platforms, or digital archives. 

Gehl research evaluating the emerging findings from the initiative found that commemoration increasingly functions as a process rather than a finished object — something communities shape together over time. This research also found that commemorative projects could evoke positive community response even if they were ephemeral, short term experiences, like rituals or dance performances, that provide opportunities for interactive, even embodied engagement with histories, as well as from physical and permanent forms, such as sculptures or parks. 

“There is no single history of a place. Cities hold many histories, and commemoration should reflect the diversity of the people who shape them.”

Julia Day, Partner and Director, Gehl

Living Heritage

In Madinah, Gehl’s work has focused on understanding what should be preserved as the city grows to accommodate increasing numbers of visitors. As part of the project, Gehl is gathering data on the city’s living heritage – including everyday rituals, cultural experiences, and the places that hold meaning for different groups of people. This helps communicate how future development can respect and strengthen the social and cultural qualities that foster a sense of belonging among residents.

“The engagement methods used have gone beyond traditional in-person public meetings, enabling us to reach a broader and more diverse range of voices. Through these approaches, we have been able to include perspectives from younger generations, children, women, and students, ensuring that the future of the city reflects the experiences and values of the people who live there.”

Liselott Stenfeldt, Partner and Director of R&D, Gehl 

This shift reflects an important insight: memory evolves as societies revisit the past and incorporate voices that were previously excluded.

Memory, Belonging, and Everyday Life

Public space quietly teaches us who belongs. The stories we encounter in streets, parks, and squares influence how people see themselves within the city. When diverse histories are visible in the public realm, people are more likely to feel recognized and connected to place.

When those histories are absent, belonging can feel conditional. The statue of Grevinde Danner in Copenhagen offers a powerful example of how monuments can be embedded in everyday urban life. Located along a major route into the city center, the monument depicts the 19th-century advocate for women’s rights at eye level, encountered daily by pedestrians and cyclists.

Elsewhere, cities are rethinking monuments to acknowledge more complex histories. In Newark, New Jersey, a monument to Harriet Tubman by Nina Cooke John now stands where a statue of Christopher Columbus once did, honoring Tubman’s leadership in the Underground Railroad and inviting reflection on histories of resistance and freedom. The physical monument invites interaction – with things to touch and sit on, and stories to read. The monument has also become a meeting spot for social or commemorative gatherings. 

As well illustrated by Mellon’s Monuments Project, not all commemoration requires a statue. The global initiative Jane’s Walk honors urbanist Jane Jacobs through community-led walks exploring neighborhoods and the values she championed. Here, memory becomes an active civic practice — something people experience together in cities around the world.

The time is now

These questions feel particularly urgent today. Across the world, cities are transforming at an unprecedented pace. In historic urban areas, rapid development increasingly reshapes the physical fabric of cities, often risking the loss of living heritage — the everyday places, practices, and communities that carry history into the present. As buildings, neighborhoods, and public spaces change or disappear through development, natural disasters, or political shifts, so too do the stories and cultural meanings embedded within them. In this context, struggles over whose histories are preserved, represented, or erased are becoming more visible, raising urgent questions about how cities can evolve without losing the living heritage that gives them identity.

These tensions often surface in the public realm. Streets, parks, and monuments become spaces where societies negotiate whose stories are visible and whose are pushed aside. When layers of history disappear from public space, communities are also threatened. Erasure, silencing, and neglect — even when subtle — shape everyday experiences of belonging. In this context, commemoration becomes more than symbolic; it becomes a civic act.

To move toward a commemorative landscape that reflects a broader understanding of who and what is represented, cities must use a wider range of tools to center diverse perspectives. New engagement and data-gathering methods can better capture the character of place and the lived experiences of those who use it daily, ensuring that the memories, practices, and stories that shape living heritage are recognized alongside more visible historical narratives. With these tools, monuments can shift from objects of distant observation to spaces of encounter and participation.

On International Women’s Day, that challenge of who and how to commemorate feels especially clear: our cities should tell stories that reflect everyone who helped shape them. It is not simply to decide who deserves a statue. It is to create public spaces where more people see themselves reflected — and where history becomes something we encounter, question, and carry forward together.