8 Women We'd Like To See Featured On An American Dollar Bill
During a speech in Kansas City yesterday, President Barack Obama revealed that one young female supporter sent him a letter asking why women aren't featured on any American bills.
Come to think of it, the old-white-dude dominated American currency is getting pretty old.
And now that Obama has gone on record saying that featuring a female would be a “pretty good idea,” it’s time to discuss who could best represent our great country on paper money.
Below, we’ve rounded up some women we could see on the dollar.
Congress, are you reading?
Susan B. Anthony
Although Susan B. Anthony coins are still in circulation (they’re just no longer being minted), we think this suffragist — who helped ensure voting rights for women back in the early 1900s — deserves to have her face featured in green.
Although she died before women secured the right to cast their ballots in 1920, Anthony helped herald a change that has resulted in increased freedom for women across the land.
What better way to honor that legacy?
Eleanor Roosevelt
Arguably the most influential (and not to mention the longest-serving) First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t just inspire a bunch of feel-good Pinterest quotes.
The female Roosevelt was instrumental in the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, a standard that the U.S. adopted and other countries still use today.
Harriet Tubman
African American abolitionist and Union spy during the Civil War, Harriet Tubman is perhaps best remembered for running the Underground Railroad.
During a time when black people had no rights in the South, Tubman bravely helped these individuals find freedom, making an estimated 19 trips to smuggle people across borders and get them safely to Northern states.
Beyoncé
Don’t say you weren't thinking it, too.
If we have to stare at this piece of paper for the next hundred-some years, whose mug is better to be stuck with than Beyonce’s beautiful one?
Besides, the singer apparently has a heart of gold, and a voice that isn’t afraid to stick up for her fellow females.
Hillary Clinton
We’re getting ahead of ourselves here, but the first female US President (ahem, ahem) most definitely deserves to have her face immortalized on American currency.
Perhaps in 2017, Clinton herself will be able to push this through into law? As an outspoken advocate for the equal treatment of women and girls, the lack of female faces on paper money is something that Clinton would certainly seek to rectify.
Madeline Albright
Speaking of Secretaries of State, Madeline Albright made her mark when she served as the first female Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Albright might be the less obvious choice to be featured on an American bill, but she continues, to this day, to shape the way people view the world and its problems, currently working as a professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Rachel Carson
Clearly ahead of her time, Rachel Carson championed the environmentalist movement, revealing the dangers of chemical pesticides, that undoubtedly saved a number of lives.
In a time when our own attention to our climate could use a boost, perhaps Carson’s face on a dollar would remind us regularly that not only do we have to take care of ourselves, but we also have to take care of our planet.
Sandra Day O’Connor
As the first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor is a brilliant mind who paved the way for women in a male-dominated field.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are undoubtedly where they are today because of O’Connor’s trailblazing expertise. Hopefully many more females will follow her lead and continue to reach these High Court positions.
