03/06/2026
Love how the Danes used knitting to call attention to the lack of historical female statues! Well done. 👏❤️
Louise Moerup and her 10-year-old son asked the same question every morning as they passed a naked statue of Venus in a Copenhagen park on the way to school: why aren't there more statues of real women?
Over Christmas, Louise decided to see if she could spark more people to ask that same question. So she knitted a striped halter dress from scrap yarn and slipped it over the goddess's head.
"It wasn't really the nudity that made me want to knit her dress," she said, "but the absence of women who are remembered for their achievements. Knitting the dress was my humorous way to make people look twice and notice what's missing."
What was missing, it turned out, was staggering. A report by the Museum of Art in Public Spaces found 484 monuments in Denmark depicting historically significant men. 43 depicted historically significant women. And more than 120 public sculptures were female n**es -- mythological figures, literary characters, allegorical bodies.
Named and remembered: men. Unnamed and unclothed: women.
Knitters across Denmark picked up their needles. Statues appeared in sweaters, shawls, minidresses, and bikinis. City Council members in Aarhus dressed the three n**e women in their city hall park -- one in a pink minidress, one in a frilly skirt.
"It's important," said council member Matilde Dueholm, "that when young girls and women walk around Aarhus, we also feel represented in the public environment. Not only as beautiful bodies without clothes, but as individuals with agency and power."
Henriette Laursen, director of Denmark's national gender equality center, framed what the knitters understood instinctively: this landscape, she said, maintains the perception that men are the ones who act, while women are the ones who are looked at.
Some people have pushed back at the knitters' campaign, accusing them of puritanism for covering up naked statues. Author Maren Uthaug, who supported the knitting campaign with a call for others to engage in “a little activist-feminist handicraft," argues that's missing the point.
"We don’t want the statues removed, and we don’t really want to cover them up," she explained. "But we can’t make a point by doing something with historical statues -- because they are not there.”
Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt, who had already commissioned a committee to identify women worthy of public commemoration, welcomed the knitters as allies. "I see it as a very unique kind of protesting the present," he said, "in order to have a more equal future."
Last month, the Danish government announced $1.5 million to fund public monuments commemorating historically significant women -- with Tove Ditlevsen, one of Denmark's most celebrated authors, and Bodil Begtrup, the country's first female ambassador, already named as candidates.
As for the dress Louise knitted for Venus that started it all? Curators from the Museum of Copenhagen asked if she would donate it to their collection.
Now, the Venus stands naked again but plans are in the works for statues honoring real women and Louise is thrilled. "If my little knitted intervention helped nudge the conversation forward, I'm glad about that."
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For several uplifting picture books about Mighty Girls who uses fabric crafts to spread kindness and build community, we recommend "Extra Yarn" (https://www.amightygirl.com/extra-yarn) and "A Hat for Mrs. Goldman" (https://www.amightygirl.com/a-hat-for-mrs-goldman), both for ages 4 to 8
For an excellent guide for girls on how to make real change on the issues they can care, we highly recommend "A Smart Girl's Guide: Making A Difference" for ages 8 to 12 at https://www.amightygirl.com/smart-girl-s-guide-making-a-difference
For kids in general, we also recommend "How to Make a Better World: For Every Kid Who Wants to Make a Difference" for ages 7 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/how-to-make-a-better-world
And to inspire children and teens with stories of real-life girls and women who made a difference on the issues they cared about, visit our blog post, "50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
For hundreds of true stories for children and teens about female trailblazers who deserve to be recognized, visit our “Role Model" biography” section at http://amgrl.co/2wRJudE
To read more about the Danish knitting campaign in The New York Times, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/arts/design/denmark-women-statues-knitting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.RFA.B7jt.pJtrni0TABV2&smid=url-share
