Andrew Jackson has been sitting pretty on the $20 bill for 87 years. Is it time to bring some new blood to the banknote?
The non-profit organization called Women on 20s is campaigning to put a woman's face on American money. Barbara Ortiz Howard, the company's founder, would like to see a woman on the $20 bill by 2020. That year marks the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.
Howard got the idea when she realized that her daughter had no everyday reminders of famous women in history. She asked her friend Susan Ades Stone, a journalist, to join her cause. "Part of the aim is to educate as many people as possible about as many women as possible," Ades says. "We want to see how many people we can reach."
American money values the successes of former presidents and founding fathers. Currently, there are only two women on money: Susan B. Anthony is the face of the rare dollar coin, and Sacagawea can be seen on the gold dollar coin. There are no women on paper bills.
With help from writers and historians, Howard and Stone came up with a voting list featuring 15 important women. Ades says there is a standard for choosing candidates. They look at the women's contributions to our world, and at what challenges they faced.
More than 72, 000 people have voted so far in the poll. Ades says the competition has narrowed to a "very close race", but won't say who's in the lead. After two rounds of voting, Women on 20s will send their campaign to the White House for consideration. The final decision is up to the Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew. Lew is unlikely to make a change without the president's approval. But last year, when a little girl asked the president why there aren't any women on US currency, he said that adding a woman is a "pretty good idea".
