A Street-Level Search for Women to Put on a Manhattan Pedestal

Joan of Arc’s armor glistened in the noonday sun as she walked slowly through the lunchtime crowds rushing past the Flatiron Building in Manhattan recently. Every now and then, she paused and scanned the sidewalk, slightly tilting her head back as she announced her mission.

“Where are the women?” she cried with a touch of drama in her voice. “I’ve just stepped off my pedestal on 93rd Street! Where are the women?”

She approached Joshua Randle, a traffic agent. “There are only five monuments to women in New York City,” she said to him. “Would you like to nominate a woman?”