COLUMBUS — The Ohio Women’s Monument will be officially unveiled Wednesday, Oct. 14, in a ceremony at the Ohio Theatre, followed by a ribbon cutting on the South Plaza of the Ohio Statehouse, directly across the street from where the monument will stand on Capitol Square.
The program runs from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Ohio Theatre, with the public ribbon cutting and unveiling to follow on the South Plaza. The event is free and ticketed, and organizers had asked those planning to attend the indoor program to RSVP in advance.
The sculpture, designed by artist Brenda Councill, will be the first monument on the Statehouse grounds to depict real women and their role in shaping Ohio’s history. For generations, the monuments at Capitol Square have honored presidents, governors, astronauts and statesmen, while the women who led the fight for voting rights and other reforms went unrepresented in bronze and stone.
Ohio played an early role in that fight. The state hosted the first statewide women’s rights convention in 1850, and the Ohio Legislature ratified the 19th Amendment in June 1919, giving women the vote in national elections.
The project was supported by private funds, with backing from the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, the Capitol Square Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council, America 250-Ohio and the former Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission, along with individual donors.
The unveiling comes as Ohio and the nation mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, a milestone organizers say made this the right moment to place women’s leadership at the center of the state’s public memory.
