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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah company is calling for more female representation in statues and sculptures across the country.
Marblecast Products Inc., also known as Statues.com, started the “Where Are The Women” campaign to introduce statues of 20 women for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 2020.
Passed in August 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote.
“I think the message needs to be national, across our country, that there is underrepresentation of these women that led the charge toward equal rights for all,” Statues.com co-owner and co-founder Victoria Karpos said.
Historical women such as suffragists Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells and Alice Paul will be featured in the project, Karpos said.
The company has started a Kickstarter to fund the project, but Karpos said they will continue the initiative even if the Kickstarter isn’t successful.
Karpos and her husband, Vasilios, started their statue business after moving to the U.S. from Greece, she said.
In 1992, the couple purchased the Statues.com domain name and began providing custom statues and sculptures online. They were the first company to offer such a service, Karpos said.
Karpos’ parents-in-law have been creating sculptures for about 40 years, while Karpos and her husband have been in the business for about 25 years, she said.
The business started with mostly classical Greek sculptures and statues, influenced by the mythology and culture of the country, Karpos said. Now, though, they have expanded their business to include cultural figures from their new home, she said.
“It’s nice to see how it’s evolved,” Karpos said. “Now we’re doing statues that have to do with our America.”
The company can make whatever statues the customer requests, Karpos said. Everything from small, 6-inch busts of historical figures to 10-foot-tall statues and large models of company logos, such as the block U for the University of Utah, she said.
In researching the anniversary of women’s suffrage, Karpos discovered that her company’s product line didn’t include many women.
“With the anniversary, I thought it would be great, maybe, to find those key women, the suffragists, that made that movement and that made that cause happen — those trailblazers,” Karpos said.
She brought in her 23-year-old daughter, Paraskevi Karpos, to help make that a reality. The pair worked to identify the 20 women they hope to highlight with the project.
“If you read each one of the stories, each one has an awesome story behind her,” Karpos said. “These are women who led these charges that we live with today in our country.”
The underrepresentation of women goes beyond statues, Karpos said. There should be more women depicted in street names, counties, stamps, universities and other aspects of American culture, she added.
There are many properties, such as National Park Service areas, dedicated to suffragists and other important historical women, so they will likely be requesting likenesses of those women, Karpos said.
There are more than just 20 women they hope to highlight, so Karpos anticipates that the company will continue the project.
“We’ve just come too far along, and there’s too many that are waiting for this,” Karpos said. “We just don’t want them to be forgotten.”
