There are more statues of animals than there are of trailblazing women in Victoria聽and there as many as there are of animals: three.
Appallingly, but not surprisingly,聽statues of women on their own聽who have made history make up just聽1% of the state鈥檚 statues.
The lobby group A Monument of One鈥檚 Own surveyed Melbourne鈥檚 statues and found only 36 are of women. Of those, 鈥 named after women rather than allegorical or symbolic figures such as nymphs or sprites.
Perhaps in part due to this incredible oversight, Jennifer Mann and her sculpture have been selected to honour life-long activist Zelda D鈥橝prano through the Victorian government鈥檚 $1 million Victorian Women鈥檚 Public Art Program.
D鈥橝prano was born in Carlton in Melbourne on January 24, 1928, to working-class migrant parents Shimshon and Rachel Orloff (nee Tourkenitz), who were taken as children to Palestine to escape anti-semitic persecution in Russia and Ukraine.
D鈥橝prano left school at 14 to work in a variety of jobs including as biscuit maker, usherette, seamstress, dental nurse and office worker. She married Charlie D鈥橝prano at 17 and their daughter Leonie was born a year later.
She was an active trade unionist.聽 After she returned to work as a dental nurse,聽she almost immediately witnessed the inequalities women faced at work. Having joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), she became a writer, peace activist and a member of the Union of Australian Women.
D鈥橝prano later took up a job in the CPA-led Australian Meat Industry Employees Union, which was taking a test case or equal pay to the Arbitration Court in 1969.
In her most famous protest, in 1969 D鈥橝prano chained herself to the door of the Commonwealth Arbitration Commission Court in protest at the outcome of a trial case for equal wages for women. A second chain protest was organised with teachers Alva Giekie and Thelma Solomon.
Giekie, Solomon and D鈥橝prano went on to form the Women鈥檚 Action Committee in August 1970, which later led to the formation of the Women鈥檚 Liberation Movement in Melbourne.
D鈥橝prano presented the Women鈥檚 Liberation Movement submission to the equal pay case, in the Arbitration Court in 1972, which decided in favour of 鈥渨ork of equal value鈥.
Among the many stories of D鈥橝prano鈥檚 activism, my favourite is when she only paid 75% of the tram fare to highlight the injustice of women鈥檚 pay rates.
D鈥橝prano campaigned unrelentingly for nearly 30 years for equal pay, health and safety on the job, minimum wages and for women鈥檚 rights in general.
She died in February 2018, aged 90. Her autobiography, Zelda: The Becoming of a Woman, documents the women鈥檚 movement of the 1970s and is insightful reading today: it鈥檚 also a reminder that the struggle is not over.
Mann鈥檚 sculpture of D鈥橝prano in bronze will represent her iconic protest when she chained herself to the door of the Commonwealth Arbitration Commission.聽It has been commissioned by Victorian Trades Hall Council and聽A Monument of One鈥檚 Own聽with support from the Victorian government through the聽.聽It will be situated on the south-west lawn at Trades Hall, facing 聽Lygon Street.
[You can donate to build the statue of Zelda D鈥橝prano .]