Which woman should appear on the new $10 bill?

Which woman should appear on the new $10 bill?

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The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that a woman will appear on the $10 bill beginning in 2020, and that it is asking for the public's input on which notable woman it should select.

Several Virginia Commonwealth University faculty members offered their top picks for the redesigned $10 bill, and explained the reasoning for their choices.

 

Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman

Kimberly Brown, Ph.D. Associate professor and chair of the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences

Brown is an expert in contemporary African-American women’s literature and culture, black feminist theory, Africana film and 20th century American and Africana literatures.

My choice has always been Harriet Tubman, the 19th Century abolitionist who freed over 3,000 enslaved blacks through the Underground Railroad. She's always been my hero because she practiced liberation, rather than just espoused a belief in it. I marvel at how courageous she was and think her actions have not been rivaled by anyone in our U.S. history to date.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams

Emilie Raymond, Ph.D. Associate professor in the Department of History in the College of Humanities and Sciences

Raymond specializes in 20th century American politics and culture, and her work focuses on the intersection between Hollywood and politics, as well as the influence of the civil rights movement, women’s activism and conservatism in American life.

Abigail Adams, wife of Continental Congress delegate John Adams, was the first "founding mother" to champion women's rights when she urged Adams to "remember the ladies" in determining the new country's code of laws. Abigail would go on to be John's most trusted adviser when he became the second president of the United States, and her eldest son John Quincy became the country's sixth president. Admired for her strength and intelligence, Abigail foreshadowed the women's suffrage movement and expressed incredible aspirations for America even before it was a country.

 

 

 

Sacagawea
Sacagawea

Ryan Smith, Ph.D. Associate professor in the Department of History in the College of Humanities and Sciences

Smith specializes in American religious history and material culture.

I think Hamilton should stay on the $10 bill. He had a lot to do with the nation's money supply, and his face presents a useful historical reminder.

Andrew Jackson on the $20 should be replaced, though. Switch him out for Sacagawea. That way people would see her, and we could drop her unused dollar coin. Rachel Carson or Sojourner Truth would also rock the $20.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony

Deirdre Condit, Ph.D. Associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science in the College of Humanities and Sciences

Condit's research has focused on women and politics, the politics of reproductive and genetic technologies, maternal political theory, sex and gender identity, and her interdisciplinary interests span and integrate studies in political theory, feminist theory, law and public policy.

I have a long list of women who I think ought to have this honor and it includes Sacagawea, Lucrectia Mott, Hariett Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Helen Keller, Alice Paul, Jeanette Rankin, Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan and Bella Abzug.

Of these women, if I had to pick just one, it would be two: I think Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton should share this honor. Their portrait should show them looking at each other, sharing in the massive effort that suffrage took. These two women shared one of the most unique and emblematic political and historical relationships in American history. They were Jefferson and Adams, in many ways.

 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Susan B. Anthony was the activist, while Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the intellectual architect. She was the American woman's Benjamin Franklin. She was the thinker that challenged America to try and understand why women had been excluded as citizens from the founding. Her "sister," Susan B. Anthony, cared less about the "Why?" and spent her life demanding the "Now!" Though neither woman lived to see the fruits of their labor (and here I would nudge Alice Paul forward in the list for finally succeeding in this critical political battle for women), I think together they represent the complexity of women's political history, power and wisdom.  

My second choice would be Shirley Chisholm, who I think may have been one of the fiercest, most intellectually compelling women in American political history.

My third choice would be Eleanor Roosevelt. We all owe so much to her that I'm not sure a simple dollar bill is enough of a thanks.

 

 

 

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