Women pioneers take a bow

As the dedication of the Boston Women's Memorial drew to a close, more than 100 audience members, mostly women, crowded around the three statues.

Calling the historic figures by their first names, some swung their arms around Lucy's shoulder while posing for pictures. Others parked themselves alongside Phillis on her granite bench, or gazed into Abigail's stern, penetrating face.

"She's looks very thoughtful," said Nicole Price, a freshman at Watertown High School, as she peered at the likeness of President John Adams' wife, a leading suffragist.

"I think she looks more than thoughtful," corrected Polly Kaufman, of the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. "I think she's telling you like it is."

A few feet away, Sylvia McDowell, one of several women who have labored since 1992 to bring about the monument, admired the statue of Wheatley, America's first published African-American poet.

Asked what Wheatley might say about the monument, only the second monument on city property to acknowledge the role of women in Boston's 350-year history, McDowell grinned wide.

"That I finally get the recognition that people should have been giving me," she answered. "And that I'm so glad to be here in this very prominent spot."

The memorial, positioned along the tree-lined mall between Fairfield and Gloucester streets, is indeed the first dedicated to women that has garnered such prime real estate.

A 9-foot-high statue of Harriet Tubman was erected on Columbus Avenue in Roxbury in 1999. A row of six bronze relief heads of Massachusetts women who made their mark in public life, meanwhile, sits in a pass-through space at the State House.

While statues of Colonial settler Anne Hutchinson and accused witch Mary Dyer have prominent positions on Beacon Hill, neither specifically reflects women's contributions to history.

Adams, Wheatley, and Stone, a fellow suffragist who founded the Women's Journal more than a century ago, were chosen for the monument because they were all committed to challenging the societies in which they lived, making them foremothers of the modern-day equal rights movement, said Marie Turley, executive director of the Boston Women's Commission.

"I think to have three women from three such different backgrounds, and three different walks of life . . . this is so much greater than just having one statue," said Barbara Lee, a Cambridge philanthropist who donated to the $400,000 project. "People can visit each statue and each choose their favorite."

The monument joins several other statues -- all of men -- positioned along the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. Its arrival, it was widely acknowledged yesterday, was long overdue.

"After 300 years, it's about time," said Kip Tiernan, founder of Rosie's Place, as white sheets were pulled off the statues, revealing the bronze ladies in various poses.

But unlike many Boston statues, the three women's likenesses are eminently accessible. Rather than place the women on pedestals, artist Meredith Bergmann placed them at eye level, leaning against granite pedestals or using them as writing tables.

Their forms, slightly larger than life, are intricately detailed.

"There are those who would prefer a monument that did not feature depictions in the realist tradition," said Bergmann, a New York City artist who worked five years on the piece.

"For centuries women were their bodies -- their minds and spirits were things to be carefully controlled," said Bergmann, who was trying to convey that "women, far more than men, cannot easily escape their bodies."

The dedication was attended by Mayor Thomas Menino and other city officials, as well as dozens of women and men who worked on the project and Back Bay residents who have waited many years for the last block on Commonwealth Avenue to receive public art.

"It's the best addition to the Commonwealth Mall that I could imagine," said Myron Miller, 58, an architect whose brownstone overlooks the memorial. "And it's a place. It's not just an object. It's a place where people can be."