There’s a campaign in progress to put a woman’s face on the $20 bill. It’s about time! Look at all the masculine faces in your wallet — I had to look it up, but apparently a woman has graced our paper money only once in our entire history: Martha Washington, on the $1 silver certificate, way back at the end of the 19th century.
They’re at the primary election stage, picking a set of nominees to propose to put on the $20 bill. You get to pick three: I chose Rachel Carson, Rosa Parks, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Go make your choice!
If you hadn’t rebelled, you’d have a woman’s head on all of your coins.
Just sayin’.
Sojourner Truth, Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Hypatia?
Herschel’s sister who did half the work for him?
.
Sometimes, people can modify existing money to honor people:
Canada’s Central Bank Asks Canadians to Stop “Spocking” Bills to Honor Leonard Nimoy http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/03/03/spocking_canada_s_five_dollar_bill_tribute_to_dr_spock_leonard_nimoy.html
I’m ashamed to say that of the 20 women listed I only knew Rosa Parks and E. Roosevelt. I hope it’s an european thing.
Shirley Chisholm, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman. Chisholm was such a badass.
I knew the names and something of the achievements of 9 of the candidates. I’ve read Friedan and Carson and they both made a great impression on me. I don’t have a vote, living in the UK, but I think I would agree with PJ.
Unfortunately, I’m already anticipating Caroline Criado-Perez, part 2 here. Because lightning never strikes twice, amirite?
Ye Font Of All Knowledge for the unaware.
But there are women on circulating US currency, Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea! Of course, their placement is insult to injury: the dollar coin, which is the most hated piece of currency in the US.
Truth, Tubman, and Perkins.
Perkins was my sop to those who think that the bills should honor someone with direct impact on the economy **through participation in government**.
I personally think that Tubman, for one, had great impact on the economy, but reducing the “net wealth” of the South by encouraging their property to move to New England or Canada or Illinois isn’t exactly what the establishment believes qualifies.
Truth would be my top pick. She articulated values that are important today. Tubman implemented those values in dangerous work (not that Truth didn’t face threats of course, but it’s not the same as going undercover in the South during slavery) and serves as a model for moral courage. Perkins kicked some gendered ass and probably had more to do with the modern economy than Roosevelt. Good, and probably establishment-friendly (or at least friendlier) save for those folks who are republican enough to decry social security as an abomination that must be destroyed but aren’t too sexist to give Perkins the credit she deserves despite not holding the Presidency. Nonetheless, I simply value Truth and Tubman more.
I just hope that this move in America doesn’t reveal the same kind vile misogyny that came to light in the UK with the heinous treatment received by Caroline Criado-Perez as she campaigned for the new £10 note to feature the image of Jane Austin, that was further compounded by the police mishandling the case and showing a total lack of empathy for the victim (though in the end the case did result in convictions).
Sadly, on the evidence I have seen of the ubiquity of misogynist trolls, it seems very likely that similar harrassment will be repeated. I hope that the response from the authorities will be robust, but on past experience that doesn’t seem likely.
Tubman, Chisholm, Parks
for the revolting treatment of Ms Criado-Perez you should also add that the MP Stella Creasy who stepped up to help her was equally besieged with hate mail, and on an independent issue the british olympic athlete Jessica Ennis, adulated as a heroin since the 2012 games, was given similar treatment for withdrawing support from a football club in relation to their policy involving a convicted rapist. She was told she would be raped herself. Some people are such pathetic shits.
Rebecca Watson (just to make certain people’s heads explode)
Joking aside: Shirley Chisholm
Oh, your foolish hope. Other countries change their money all the time and put famous thinkers and women on them. We here in America can’t change anything without descending into a howling frenzy of our worst human tendencies. We decided hundreds of years ago that we were the best at everything and we can’t change anything for any reason.
I’m sorry, am I bitter this morning?
I’m honestly surprised you’re still using a decimalised currency. I would have expected Congress to revert to some form of guinea/shilling/pence system out of sheer cussedness by now.
So, I knew Shirley Chisolm’s name and that she had been a fairly well-tenured congressional rep, but I didn’t remember her presidential candidacy. It’s odd, though alive I was far too young to have any experience of her candidacy at the time in 1972, but why didn’t I hear more when he was the “first Black man to run for president” in 1984 – a year which saw the first woman major-party Vice-Presidential nominee – I didn’t hear about the Black woman who had run for president and gotten over 150 delegates on 300k?
Ooops, that’s right. Now I remember why I didn’t hear more about Chisolm’s presidential campaign.
This was 1984, right?
My first thought before I saw the list was Grace Hopper. She would add both a woman to currency, a navy rear admiral, and be the first person from the tech industry on any denomination.
Not being an American, I don’t feel I should vote. Worse still, most of my initial thoughts for names were all white (e.g. Friedan). Reflection of other people is long overdue and deserved. As another person mentioned, Susan B. Anthony was already on one, so I would say no to her.
Here’s another thought: Maybe it’s time for the US to drop the paper $1 and adopt both the $1 and put a $2 coin into regular circulation, unlike the rarely used $2 bill. Another currency provides another place to put a woman’s face.
You Americans are way behind the curve. Canadians have a woman on every single bill and coin. :-)
Tough choice! I’d vote for all of them.
left0ver1under,
Grace Hopper immediately entered my mind as well. I loved all the selections they came up with, but I wish I could have seen some more STEM women options. I don’t know which of the 15 I’d remove though, so maybe it should have just been a vote to pick the top 3-5 out of 20? There are just so many admirable, important women in US history (as well as the rest of the world, of course)!
If it wasn’t an implied and/or legal requirement (I don’t know which, but I assume it’s in law somewhere) for the person honored to be dead, I’d go Mae Jemison in a frickin’ heartbeat.
Sure, Canada has a woman on every coin and bill, but she’s an old white lady, the head of a rather obsolete monarchy. Not much to be superior about, if you ask me. Our history is much richer than that.
And it was the same in the UK, yet they still managed to find a reason to try and put a (different) woman on some money (see comments above on Caroline Cirado-Perez).
Surprised Edith Wilson’s not on there, considering she actually ran the country for a while.
@1 Terry
I think the point is celebrating women who’ve actually earned recognition.
Crip Dyke,
Mae Jemison would be an awesome choice! For a deceased astronaut, Sally Ride would have been a good choice too.
That “this space reserved for a joke” was already told at the beginning of the thread.
Thomas Jefferson, our Founder, (
who wrote the Constitution) was THE advocate of decimalizing the dollar into pennies. And we appreciated it so much, we honored him onto the $2 bill. You know, that piece of paper nobody keeps in their wallet, and cash registers have no compartment for.to derail a bit: I was always puzzled by the nonacceptance of the $2 bill and also the $1 coin. just eliminate the penny, accept the dollar coin, eliminate the $1 bill, accept the $2bill. Cash registers need no changes: $2bill replaces $1bill, $1coin replaces penny. Hong Kong had a version of the dollar system, and did not use HKpennies (0.01 $HK), at all. All prices were ’rounded’ (up or down) to the nearest .05 $HK. Why couldn’t we do the same?
The Austen controv in Britain just boggled my mind…
zibble @24
Especially since Canada will (most likely) be back to manly money upon the demise or abdication of said current monetized woman.
Canada was close – but those five women were replaced by an icebreaker! And other attempts have been made, though none as yet successful (interestingly, that list at the bottom – if you click through it, though it is awfully white! – also features Harriet Tubman).
Anyway. Go, America, be ahead of the Canadian curve.
Like that law that states “only dead presidents can be emblazoned on our bills”? </sarc>
Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks,
Ain’t I a Woman?, Sojouner Truth.
“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them. ”
Amen
@Mark The Snark #18
The last time I checked, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, ($5), Sir John A. Macdonald, ($10), William Lyon Mackenzie King, ($50), and Sir Robert Borden, ($100), were all men. Although the scientist on the reverse of the $100 is a woman.
The Queen only appears on coins and the $20 bill.
If I were USan, I’d pick Truth, Tubman, and Stanton. If Sanger were available, despite her flaws, I’d consider her too.
All of the Australian bills have a woman on them (and not just the queen – the five dollar bill has the queen on it, but all the other notes have a woman on one side and a man on the other)
@29, it’s 31 USC 5114 (b) and it just limits it to deceased people:
CaitieCat
Sanger’s on the list.
thanks, qwints!
I was sure it was in law somewhere. It has to have occurred to someone by now that a still-living person, even a beloved one, can later in life really fuck up. I think the fear is that US currency might be psychologically devalued if that happens…which is another way of saying the demand curve will shift and the dollar will be **actually** devalued.
I always appreciate your ready references. You’re a good hand with statutory searches
…or you have the most awesome brain for memorizing law this world has ever seen. :-p
WHAT! No nomination of The Virgin Mary?!?
Think how this might discomfort the fundies: Religion on the money (in addition to “In God…” of course) to make them happy, but then clearly a Roman Catholic connotation to distress them.
rq @22
Actually, Canada had the Famous Five on our money – Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby. They were 5 feminists who challenged the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision that women were not persons, under the law. They took the case all the way to the British Privy Council and had the Court’s decision overturned. Thanks to their efforts, on October 18, 1929, women were persons, under the law in Canada and throughout the British Empire.
For a brief and shining moment, they were featured on the back of the $50.
This is somewhat apropos to the thread. It’s my favorite trivia question.
Name the lifelong communist whose picture appears on spendable US currency.
I’m talking about a person who wrote and advocated for full-out communism for most of xir adult life. Anyone know?
SBA
Considering the uproar over the idea of printing U.S. currency with something other than just green ink, I’m not sure how much popular support you could find for changing the faces at all. Add to this resistance to change, cultural misogyny, racism, and the fact that many of these women are famous for things that piss the religious right off, and I imagine there’s absolutely no chance.
Still, I wish them luck…
They are all better than the disgusting person that is Andrew Jackson.
Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Alice Paul (despite some shortcomings).
(I had an ancestor in the 1830s named Andrew Jackson King. Most of my people on that side came from France. They were déchets blanc.)