A new law has been introduced in Congress to put a woman on the $20 bill as a way of applauding the role women have played in American history.
According to the Weekly Standard, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) has introduced the “Put a Woman on the Twenty Act” in Congress with the hopes of seeing a woman’s face on the $20 bill in the near future.
“As women fill more and more positions of leadership in United States and in U.S. economy, there remains one place they are not represented: on United States currency. This legislation will change that,” said the congressman’s office in a press release.
“Not since the 19th century, when Martha Washington’s portrait was briefly featured on the $1 silver certificate, has there been a woman on U.S. paper currency. And yet throughout our history, countless women have accepted the call to serve as the heads of cabinet departments, in the halls of Congress, as Presidents and CEOs of industry, and as activists and public leaders fighting for justice and rights and protections under the law. Women make up over 50 percent of our population and at least 50 percent of our patriots, leaders, and role-models as a nation.”
According to the womenon20s website, four women have emerged as finalists:
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who championed civil and women’s rights in a newspaper column, on radio shows and speeches, and who drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), a former slave who fled North to freedom but participated in the Underground Railroad that brought more than 300 slaves into freedom. She served as a nurse during the Civil War and was a scout and spy for the Union Army. She became active in the women’s suffrage movement after the war.
Rosa Parks (1913 – 2005), whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man made her a symbol in the quest for racial equality and earned her the title of “first lady of civil rights.”
Wilma Mankiller (1945 – ) was added to the list of the final three due to strong public sentiment to replace Andrew Jackson, who is currently depicted on the $20, with a Native American. This is due to Jackson’s role in the passage of the Indian Removal Act during his presidency which stripped thousands of Native Americans of their land. Mankiller served as the first female Cherokee Nation Chief.
These four names were on a list of possibilities that included such stellar figures as Susan B. Anthony (1820 -1906), the great champion of abolition and women’s rights after whom the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was named; and Alice Paul (1885-1977), the suffragist who called abortion the “ultimate exploitation of women” and whose work contributed to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Sadly, the list also included names such as Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood who was a well-known eugenicist whose advocacy of birth control and abortion was designed to cull the human race of those she believed to be undesirable.
Betty Friedan (1921 – 2006), author of The Feminine Mystique and founder of the National Organization for Women, was a feminist whose radical beliefs fell into disfavor among the majority of American women.
“Recognizing and celebrating the significant contributions of women throughout American history on U.S. paper currency makes a powerful statement to my daughters and to young women across this country and to people across the globe who look to America as an example of inclusion and equal rights,” Gutierrez concludes.
“As the most used currency in international transactions, billions will see our values and freedoms in the course of daily financial transactions in every corner of the world.”
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