As we delve deeper into Women’s History Month, there’s been special recompense to revise oversights made by the legendary male figures of American history. A nonprofit campaign called "Women On 20s," calls to light the lack of female achievement on U.S. currency, and aims to change that error.
Specifically, the organization is campaigning to remove the image of Andrew Jackson, the 7th U.S. president, from the $20 bill. Jackson, whose image replaced Grover Cleveland's likeness in 1928, has remained on the bill ever since. With 2020 soon approaching, Women On 20s is looking to make an impact on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which was a constitutional law that granted women the right to vote.
The only females with images featured on a U.S. banknote are Native American interpreter and guide, Sacagawea, social reformer Susan B. Anthony, and Helen Keller, who was on the reverse side of the 2003 Alabama quarter.
"We’re looking to raise the profile of a woman in a male-dominated field," wrote the nonprofit’s founder Barbara Ortiz Howard on the organization’s blog site.
The group has already listed 15 potential women they have selected as possible candidates to replace Jackson. Names such as Clara Barton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Rachel Carson, Shirley Chisholm and Rosa Parks are featured on the created ballot. Women On 20s is asking its visitors to vote as the organization hopes to collect enough signatures — about 100,000 — to justify sending it as a petition of consideration to President Barack Obama and the White House.
Already in the past 60 hours the Women On 20s group has collected more than 8,000 votes.
"Our hope is that through this process we can expose as many people as possible of all ages and of all political and socioeconomic persuasions to really look at women’s contributions in history," executive director Susan Ades Stone told BuzzFeed. The selections will be narrowed down to three, with a second round of voting to take place afterward.
Regardless of what happens with this petition, Obama has already said in a speech that placing a woman's image on American currency is "a good idea."
"Last week, a young girl wrote to ask me why aren't there any women on our currency," Obama said in a speech last July in Kansas City. "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 our poll below, feel free to select one to indicate what woman from history you would want to see replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill:
Photo: Women On 20s | YouTube
