Denmark 'does not have enough statues of women', says Culture Minister

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The statue of the Nilen god at the Dronning-Louises-Bro bridge in Copenhagen, Denmark. /CFP

Only one in 10 public statues in Denmark are of women, a figure the country's culture minister lamented as "totally crazy" as he vowed to find more.

A committee will be tasked with drawing up a list of important yet neglected women in Danish history and making recommendations on new statues in their honor, the culture ministry said.

"Of 321 statues and busts in urban areas, only 31 represent women and in Copenhagen - there are more statues of mythical creatures than women. It's totally crazy," Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said. "Is this really the image the next generation should grow up in?"

In September 2022, a brief outdoor exhibit in central Copenhagen put 50 empty pedestals on display to illustrate the lack of women represented in the public domain.

The statue of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen, Denmark. /CFP

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Organisers also named women they believed should be honored, including author Karen Blixen (1885-1962), painter Lili Elbe (1882-1931), one of the country's first transgender women to undergo sex reassignment surgery, and 16th-century scientist Sophie Brahe.

The culture ministry said it did not have any recommendations yet on which women were worthy of statues, nor how many should be erected.