As much as any 13-ton piece of Italian marble can be, a statue of three prominent American suffragists has been a favorite Capitol football since last summer. But now the game, fought mostly by Republican women, may be over.
Since it was first given to Congress in 1921, the sculpture of Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton has sat in a relatively obscure ground-floor room of the Capitol. But the GOP leadership planned to move it upstairs to the ceremonial Rotunda in time for last August's 75th anniversary celebration of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.The idea won speedy Senate approval. But in the House, the move was blocked by a handful of GOP House women, who said that taxpayers should not be asked to pay the cost of moving the statue in this era of deficit spending.
Since then a campaign has been launched to raise $75,000 from private sources to shave 6 tons of stone off the bottom and hire a crane to move the rest upstairs to a spot under the Capitol dome, where there are currently no statues of women. Engineers were worried the Rotunda's floor could not bear the weight of the complete statue without some expensive modifications.
Two weeks ago,the National Federation of Republican Women urged Speaker Newt Gingrich, Ga., to help move the statue.
"Congressional Democrats had over 40 years to place this piece of history in the Rotunda for its visitors to view. But they did not," the GOP women wrote to the Speaker. "Clearly, this is not a feminist issue but a historical issue - one all Republicans can and should be proud."
But on Tuesday, House Republican women proposed that, instead, a privately funded scholarship fund for women should be created with any money donated to the cause.
They also said they would consider relocating a less cumbersome statue honoring women, one that would fit "more aesthetically" into the Rotunda. One under consideration is a metal likeness of Jeannette Rankin, a Montana Republican who was the first woman elected to Congress. The piece currently sits in a first floor hallway.
"We don't just want to do this because it's politically correct," said Rep. Barbara F. Vucanovich, Nev., following an hourlong meeting with her colleagues. "We want to see how we can tie it in to something that actually helps women."
But one House member not invited to the meeting, Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said that the sculpture should be moved to Seneca Falls, N.Y., where the women's suffrage movement began, if it does not end up in the Rotunda.
"They've dissed our ladies," she said of the GOP women. "We would love to have them back."