Women statues in Denmark are at the centre of a new cultural debate after a committee set up by the Ministry of Culture published the names of 12 living women it believes deserve to be honoured in public space. The list is part of a broader catalogue of 100 women of national significance, produced at Aalborg University, as Denmark tries to address a long-standing imbalance in monuments, memory and representation.
The publication follows the Danish government’s recent proposal to set aside DKK 10 million (€1.34 million) for more statues of named women in public space. The issue has already entered the national conversation in recent weeks, but the release of the 12 living names adds a new layer to the debate by challenging the traditional principle that monuments should be reserved for the dead.
Why the living women list matters in Denmark’s statue debate
According to the committee, excluding living role models delays the visibility that public monuments can provide and risks making the selection look dated. That is why the top 100 includes 12 women who are still alive, even though public statues have historically been linked to posthumous recognition.
The wider report argues that public space does not simply reflect history but also shapes it. In practice, statues influence which lives are remembered, which achievements are normalised and who is seen as part of a country’s shared narrative. In Denmark, where male historical figures still dominate monuments, the inclusion of living women is therefore both symbolic and political.
Which living women are on the committee’s list
The 12 living women identified by the committee span architecture, acting, monarchy, visual art, literature, politics, religion, music, science and sport.
They are architect Inger Exner, actor Ghita Nørby, former queen Margrethe II, artist Kirsten Justesen, writer Suzanne Brøgger, politician Pia Kjærsgaard, former bishop Lise-Lotte Rebel, musician Anne Linnet, physicist Lene Vestergaard Hau, football pioneer Susanne Augustesen, former prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and handball icon Anja Andersen.
The committee’s reasoning is deliberately broad. Some names are associated with landmark institutional change, such as Margrethe II as Denmark’s first female heir to the throne under the 1953 succession reform, Lise-Lotte Rebel as the country’s first female bishop, and Helle Thorning-Schmidt as Denmark’s first female prime minister. Others are included for cultural influence or professional innovation, such as Ghita Nørby’s six-decade acting career, Anne Linnet’s role in reshaping Danish pop music, and Lene Vestergaard Hau’s internationally recognised work in physics.
From Anne Linnet to Helle Thorning-Schmidt: a broad canon
What stands out is the committee’s effort to build a national canon that goes beyond one field or one political tradition. The list includes establishment figures, artists, athletes and women associated with major social or cultural shifts.
That breadth is likely to strengthen the public discussion but may also make it more contested. Some names, especially in politics, carry clear ideological baggage. Pia Kjærsgaard, founder of the Danish People’s Party, is one of the most influential and divisive figures in modern Danish politics. Her inclusion suggests the committee is measuring historical impact rather than public consensus or progressive symbolism.
That choice may prove important for the credibility of the project. A monument policy based only on unifying or celebratory figures would risk becoming narrow in a different way. By contrast, a broader approach recognises that public memory often includes people who changed a country profoundly, even when they remain controversial.
The numbers behind Denmark’s women statues gap
The new list builds on the same structural problem already highlighted in Denmark’s public debate this year. According to the mapping cited by the authorities and the committee’s work, Denmark has only 43 statues of historical women, compared with 483 of men.
The committee also collected 3,834 public suggestions covering more than 500 different women. Fifteen names that received the strongest public backing were automatically guaranteed a place in the top 100 catalogue, while the rest were selected through expert assessment. Alongside the top 100, the project includes a searchable database with nearly 3,000 biographies, designed as a practical tool for municipalities, planners and cultural institutions.
What happens after the list of women who deserve statues
The list does not automatically mean that statues will be built. The government’s proposed funding pool would support projects selected by the Danish Arts Foundation, and local authorities or other actors would still need to decide whom to commemorate, where and in what form. In some cases, the result may not be a bronze monument at all, but another kind of public artwork, such as murals or place naming.
Even so, the publication marks an important step in the Danish debate on women statues in Denmark. It moves the discussion from a general complaint about underrepresentation to a more concrete question: which women should be visible in public space, and why?
For Denmark, this is not only a cultural policy issue. It is also a question about how a modern Nordic society chooses to narrate its own history in streets, squares and institutions. And by including women who are still alive, the committee is suggesting that recognition does not always need to wait for posterity.
