Women have been sidelined for public recognition of their historic influence for centuries, so why are people now talking about putting a woman on the $20 bill?
It started with a child.
“I think there should be more women on a dollar/coin for the United States becuas if there where no woman there wouldn’t be men,” a now 9-year-old girl named Sofia wrote (typos included) to President Barack Obama last year. She then included a list of possible women who could be featured, including her favorite, Rosa Parks.
Sofia, who is from Massachusetts, “sort of forgot” about the letter until her father told her that Obama had mentioned her in a speech, according to Time. “I was really excited about it, because I thought that maybe it would actually happen,” she said.
At the appearance in Kansas City, Missouri, Obama said, “And then she gave me like a long list of possible women to put on our dollar bills and quarters and stuff, which I thought was a pretty good idea.”
In February, he also wrote directly to her. “This is a belated note to thank you for writing to me with such a good idea last summer,” he said. He ended the letter with, “I expect big things from you.”
The Internet does, too, apparently.
Sofia’s story went viral.
Then an organization called Women on 20s used the power of the Web to continue to stir interest. It invited people to complete two rounds of voting to choose their favorites, out of a slate of 15 inspiring American women, to grace the $20 bill. Over 10 weeks, more than 609,000 people completed the task.
Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and later helped hundreds more escape along the route of the Underground Railroad, emerged the winner, followed by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Rosa Parks.
On May 12, Women on 20s sent a petition to Obama, asking him to tell Jacob Lew, secretary of the Treasury, to use his authority to make the change to have a new bill in circulation before the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in 2020. So will the final decision to put a woman on the $20 be up to a man?
Others want a panel to make the decision, including U.S. Sen. Angus King, who is one of 12 co-sponsors of a bill called Women on the 20 Act. On Thursday, he and seven other senators sent a letter to Obama:
“Although our paper currency has been redesigned several times to improve legibility and prevent counterfeiting, the portraits on the seven main bill denominations have not changed in nearly a century. Those portraits were chosen by a special Department of the Treasury-appointed panel of citizens in the late 1920s. This year’s grassroots campaign has demonstrated that the time has come for a woman’s portrait to appear on the $20 bill.
“We write today to urge you to begin the process for selecting a woman whose likeness will be placed on the $20 bill. We have introduced legislation, the Women on the Twenty Act, which would task the Treasury Secretary with appointing a new citizens panel to determine a woman whose likeness will be featured on a new $20 bill. Our legislation does not specify that any particular woman be chosen for this honor, but does request that the panel take into consideration the input of the American people.”