Where are the women memorialized? Commemoration of Women in the U.S. Congress

Authors

Deborah Saki, Georgia State UniversityFollow
Alexander Leasure, Georgia State UniversityFollow

Abstract

In the United States, a study of the memorialization of political actors through monuments reveals the disgracefully small number of women memorialized. We find little effort to preserve the memory of trailblazing women in the U.S. Congress. By 2021, as the National Monument Audit indicates, only two congresswomen were memorialized in public spaces across the country: Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-T.X.) and Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R-N.J.). Drawing on frameworks of historical memory and theories of reputational politics, we examine the public conversations that led to the memorialization of these women. We find motive, institutional power, and clarity of narrative in the memorialization of these actors.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Saki, Deborah and Leasure, Alexander (2026) "Where are the women memorialized? Commemoration of Women in the U.S. Congress," The Journal of Social Encounters: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, 167-190.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.69755/2995-2212.1407
Available at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/vol10/iss1/16