Miss Page said her own preference for the figure was that it should be female, "I like the idea of a female figure not the least because I think it can have many associations".

BBC: Panorama - Dome!

The fountain depicts a life-size female figure pouring water from an urn into a bowl with the inscriptions "take the water of life freely" and "water is best".

BBC: Rebecca Fountain in Bath

Panorama has been exclusively behind the scenes with the designers of the body and reveals that the model for the millennium figure is a young female dancer Naomi Crouch, 22.

BBC: Panorama - Dome!

And more recently, there was one female figure that stood out in the Galleon Insider trading scandal.

FORBES: Insider Trading, Not Just for Men Anymore

As shown in Figure 2, the proportion of female board chairs remained stable over time 3.7% in 1997 and 4.0% in 2010.

FORBES: China 30 Under 30 List: Women Entrepreneurs Face More Hurdles Than Men In China - Forbes

Moreover, Figure 3 demonstrates that the proportion of female CEOs increased from 4.6% in 1997 to 5.6% in 2010.

FORBES: China 30 Under 30 List: Women Entrepreneurs Face More Hurdles Than Men In China - Forbes

The message has sunk in in Bahrain, where a third of finance-sector employees are female, and in Kuwait, where, including property, the figure rises to 40%.

ECONOMIST: Finance in the Middle East

The article's lithograph reproduction shows a mast and shredded sail on the ship, and Ryder put in, and then painted over, a female figure in a lower corner, as uncovered in a 1980s infrared study.

WSJ: Tale Told by a Modern Romantic | Jonah | Albert Pinkham Ryder | By Sidney Lawrence