5 women who should be on U.S. currency

It's time

Rosa Parks
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Daily Advertiser))

When speaking in Kansas City, Missouri last week, President Obama talked about a letter he received from a young girl asking why there aren't more women on U.S. currency. She offered him "a long list of possible women to put on our dollar bills and quarters and stuff, which I thought was a pretty good idea," Obama said.

This girl is not alone. Last year British feminists fought hard to keep a woman on their banknotes, and eventually won when the Bank of England decided to replace 19th century philanthropist Elizabeth Fry with Jane Austen — not Winston Churchill, as originally intended — on the 10 pound bill.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Elissa Strauss

Elissa Strauss writes about the intersection of gender and culture for TheWeek.com. She also writes regularly for Elle.com and the Jewish Daily Forward, where she is a weekly columnist.