Recently, there has been news regarding the changing of the American 20 dollar bill. It has been announced that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the bill. There are also some other ideas for currency change in the works, such as the picture of the treasury building on the back of the 5 dollar bill being replaced with a depiction of the 1913 march in support of women’s rights to vote that ended at that building, as well as the inclusion of five suffrage leaders: Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Alice Paul.
And on the backside of the 5 dollar bill, the Lincoln Memorial will remain, but instead, as the backdrop, would be an image of the performance by Marian Anderson in 1939, who was banned from singing at the segregated Constitution Hall instead. The addition of women and the important events women played in American history being added to our currency is an exciting concept.
Women are being further brought out of the background and finally being recognized for their roles in history. However, while adding these portraits and images to the currency honors the women of the past, these changes do not have any intention of changing the lives of the women in the present.
Harriet Tubman’s debut on the 20 dollar bill is no doubt a great honor to her, but to many of the hard-working women of the past, who are often overlooked as the founders of this country as well. It is especially groundbreaking that Tubman, an escaped slave and abolitionist, will be replacing Jackson, whose wealth was made from generations of slaves like Harriet Tubman herself.
Having these women and images of these important events on our currency helps us to remember and honor the past women who worked so hard for the present generations, but simply having these pictures on the bills will not change the lives of this present generation of women.
For one, unless having Harriet Tubman and many of the other influential women’s portraits on the bills will improve women’s access to this money, then not much is changing. Women today cannot reach their full economic potential because of the daunting existence of the wage gap. For every dollar a man earns in America, white women earn 78 cents, black women earn 64 cents, and Hispanic women earn 54 cents.
Having pictures of women on these bills does nothing to guarantee that women will finally receive these bills that they work hard for. Instead, the changing pictures on the bills are currently just another distraction from the real, current economic issues women face in America.
Also, while the addition of Tubman and other women’s images on the bills will give them a greater sense of representation, present women in America will still lack the representation they deserve.
There are 435 members in the House of Representatives, and only 84 are women, which comes out to be only about 19%. And of the 100 people in the Senate, only 20 are women, which is 20%. And those are just two of the many places women-and women of color-lack sufficient representation.
While bringing greater representation to the women of the past on the bills is a stride forward for America, this is again another distraction from the issue of current women’s representation. Adding Harriet Tubman to the 20 dollar bill and other women and women’s rights historical events images to the other bills is a major positive chance for remembering the hard-working women founders of America.
In some generations, we will probably wonder why we were so naïve to foolishly forget until 2016 about the mothers that helped build our country. However, while the addition of these women may boost today’s women’s morale, the historical symbolism is masking the current inequality issues women face in America today.
Jill Augustine
Deputy Viewpoints Editor
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