5 women who should be on U.S. currency
It's time
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.
Canadian women launched a similar campaign last year to pressure their national bank to feature women besides the Queen of England on their currency. In 2011 a group of feminist women known as the "Famous Five" and Thérèse Casgrain, the first female leader of a political party in Canada, were bumped from the $50 bill, and replaced by a boat — the Arctic icebreaker Amundsen.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
Here in the U.S. women appear on three coins: Helen Keller on a quarter, and Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony on dollar coins. But no woman has appeared on paper currency since Martha Washington's face graced the front of $1 silver certificates in the late 19th century. Instead, our bills feature only white men's faces. There has never been an African American on any U.S. currency.
According to the U.S. Department of Treasury website, the secretary of the Treasury is responsible for overseeing the production of the bills, and has been since 1862 when Congress accorded them this power.
As Treasury explains:
So according to their rules and precedents, the three requirements for appearing on money are being familiar to the general public, having contributed to American democracy, and being dead. I can think of many women who fit the bill.
Why is this necessary? Because we are shaped and guided by the stories we tell ourselves from our past. Educators have worked hard to incorporate more stories about women into history books over the last quarter century. This has been great, but there is symbolic, even subliminal, value to having women on money that history classes can't compete with. Seeing a woman's face on the front of a bill would create a strong associative bridge to one of the biggest emblems of power there is.
In an attempt to begin a productive conversation, and not create a definitive list, I have narrowed down five currency-ready women.
1. Rosa Parks
In 1955, she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, launching a boycott that fired up the Civil Rights movement. She is called "the first lady of civil rights" and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
2. Susan B. Anthony
Both an abolitionist and a suffragist, Anthony was a lifetime devotee of equal rights. She was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and worked alongside fellow feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton for women to be able to own property and vote.
3. Eleanor Roosevelt
Roosevelt redefined what it meant to be first lady, and regularly gave press conferences and wrote a newspaper column during her husband's presidency advocating for women and the poor. Her interest in policy reform stayed with her throughout her life, and later on she served as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, where she helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
4. Harriet Tubman
After escaping slavery herself, Tubman became a leading abolitionist and helped hundreds escape as a conductor of the Underground Railroad — a network of safe houses that escapees could seek refuge in as they made their way up north. During the Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union Army as an armed scout and a spy, and was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, one that liberated 700 slaves.
5. Abigail Adams
Wife of President John Adams, the nation's second first lady was an early advocate for women's rights and public education and had a strong influence on her husband. The couple maintained an ongoing correspondence over the years, and their letters are filled with high-level discussion and debates about government and politics. "Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could," she urged him.
Illustrations by Lauren Hansen, portraits courtesy Wikimedia Commons, money courtesy Blue Lightning TV.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
Chappell Roan is a new kind of boundary-setting celebrity
In the Spotlight She's calling out fans and the media for invasive behavior
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
Saudi crown prince slams Israeli 'genocide' in Gaza
Speed Read Mohammed bin Salman has condemned Israel’s actions
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'We could face disaster in the near future'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
US election: who the billionaires are backing
The Explainer More have endorsed Kamala Harris than Donald Trump, but among the 'ultra-rich' the split is more even
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
US election: where things stand with one week to go
The Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Is Trump okay?
Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The life and times of Kamala Harris
The Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
By The Week UK Published
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?
Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
1 of 6 'Trump Train' drivers liable in Biden bus blockade
Speed Read Only one of the accused was found liable in the case concerning the deliberate slowing of a 2020 Biden campaign bus
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published