Job Discussion Forums

[Sashadroogie]

How about this woman?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOgh3H2aLb4

Now, that would be a courageous choice, free from parochialism, jingoism, as well as sexism.

What are the chances?

[grahamb]

Fair enough, NS; Halle with her clothes on will do. After all, she was the first black woman to win an Oscar for a leading role.

[nomad soul]

[spiral78]

What's undemocratic about Halle Berry?

[johnslat]

Dear spiral78,

Well, in addition to not her being deceased (a disqualification that will - eventually - be dismissed) there's this:

"Halle Berry, Sarah Palin: Actress Related To Former Vice Presidential Candidate"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/halle-berry-sarah-palin-actress-related-vice-presidential-candidate_n_1970178.html

Being related to Sarah Palin is a permanent barrier - for how could Ms. Berry be "democratic" given such a genetic predisposition?

Regards,
John

[spiral78]

Dear John

I caught the deceased requirement, and will wish Ms. Berry a long life, even if it means we must wait for her appearance on a US bill.

Seems cruel and unusual punishment to hold her responsible for a family link with Sarah Palin, though. Particularly as I haven't heard that Sarah Palin's tried to use the relationship to her political (or financial) advantage so far;-)

Best,
spiral

[Sashadroogie]

Not one of your candidates has orbited the globe and embodied true democracy....

[spiral78]

But Palin can see Russia from her backyard!
She's not yet deceased, though.

Oh, wait. Maybe no one put her forward anyway....for some strange reason!

[nomad soul]

The 33 women who should be considered for the $10 bill
By Amber Phillips, The Washington Post | June 18, 2015
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/18/our-list-of-the-great-women-who-should-be-on-the-new-10-bill/

Ultimately, it's up to the Treasury Department to decide which woman should be the first to grace U.S. paper currency. Their only requirements are that 1) that the candidate is a woman 2) who is dead and 3) resembles the bill's theme of "democracy." So... that doesn't really narrow the field -- at all. The good thing is, the Obama administration says it will listen to our ideas for which woman should go on the $10 bill. We took that as a cue to give them ours.

Here's our list, pulled from a viral campaign this spring to get a Woman on the $20 bill, a Washington Post reader poll that went up today and from our own brains. We hereby formally submit them to the Treasury for consideration.

There are three iconic women who automatically top anyone's list:

Harriet Tubman, one of the most famous abolitionists of her time for her journeys on the Underground Railroad. She won the Women on the $20 campaign nomination.
Rosa Parks‎, the iconic civil rights activist
Susan B. Anthony‎, women's suffrage movement leader who was on the $1 coin until 1981

But there are plenty of other civil rights activists and women suffrage leaders who should also be considered:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton‎, an early women's rights activist and abolitionist
Sojourner Truth‎, a black women's rights activist and abolitionist
Fannie Lou Hamer, suffrage and civil rights activist
Alice Paul‎, suffrage leader

And how about these pioneering scientists:

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space
Annie Jump Cannon, who created a system to classify stars that astronomers use today
Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

These are America's first ladies who should make the short list:

Eleanor Roosevelt, human rights activist and wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She is leading in a Wonkblog reader poll for the honor.
Betty Ford, the wife of Gerald Ford whose honesty about her addictions helped make drug treatment more socially acceptable
Abigail Adams, the nation's second first lady, was really the first to take an active role in politics and policy

Speaking of politics, these women were the first of their kinds:

Frances Perkins‎, FDR's secretary of labor and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet
Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress
Patsy Mink, the first woman of color elected to the House of Representatives, and the first Asian American elected to Congress
Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman elected to both chambers of Congress
Shirley Chisholm‎, the first African-American woman elected to Congress
Barbara Jordan‎, a politician who was the first black woman in the South to be elected to the House of Representatives
Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of Cherokee Nation

And outside of Washington, there are some pretty amazing women we'd like to draw the government's attention to:

Emma Lazarus, the author of the poem on the Statue of Liberty
Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts
Jane Addams, a Nobel Prize winner and an important figure in the “settlement house” movement that gave rise to the country’s social safety net
Clara Barton‎, the founder of the American Red Cross
Betsy Ross, who made the first American flag in 1776
Hellen Keller, the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor's degree. Keller is on the 2003 Alabama quarter.
Sacagawea, a key figure in the Lewis and Clark expedition who also had a stint on the $1 coin

These authors and playwrights are awesome too:

Betty Friedan‎, feminist author of the Feminine Mystique
Rachel Carson‎, a marine biologist who wrote the hugely influential environmental book Silent Spring
Maya Angelou, famed poet and civil rights activists
Alice Childress, an award-winning African-American playwright

And here are some more outside-the-box picks we think should be considered:

Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged who retains huge influence on the modern-day libertarian movement
Margaret Sanger‎, who opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. and is considered the founder of Planned Parenthood

(End of article)

[grahamb]

Betty Shabazz did her bit for democracy and civil rights, but I imagine she'd be too radical for the WASP establishment.

[scot47]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Shabazz

I will leave our gentle readers to decide whether it is likely that those running the show would ever agree to this noble suggestion !

[nomad soul]

Update...

Harriet Tubman to appear on $20 bill, while Alexander Hamilton remains on $10 bill
By Ana Swanson & Abby Ohlheiser, Washington Post | April 20, 2016
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/20/u-s-to-keep-hamilton-on-front-of-10-bill-put-portrait-of-harriet-tubman-on-20-bill/

The U.S. Treasury will put African American abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the front of the new $20 bill, replacing former president Andrew Jackson, who will be moved to the back of the bill, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced Wednesday. Former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton will remain on the front of the new $10 bill, after the Treasury encountered fierce opposition to its initial plan to demote the founding father to make way for a woman to appear on the paper currency, the department said.

The new $5, $10 and $20 bills, which are still in the design process, will feature far more faces from history and illustrated tributes to the contributions of both women and minorities to the United States. The reverse of the new $10 bill will feature an image of a historic march for women's suffrage that ended at the Treasury Department in 1913, and honor suffrage movement leaders like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth, Lew said. The back of the $5 bill will honor the Civil Rights movement by showing the figures of Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt and African American opera singer Marian Anderson, who famously sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1939 March on Washington.

Supporters greeted the choice of Tubman, who was born a slave in Maryland and helped bring dozens of slaves to freedom in her lifetime through the network of abolitionists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She escaped in her 20's, but returned to secretly help her family members and dozens of other slaves escape to freedom. Tubman was the only woman to serve as a Union army spy during the Civil War, where she aided the north by scouting terrain and recruiting slaves as Union soldiers. Later in her life, she was an outspoken activist for women's right to vote. Lew called Tubman's story "the essential story of American democracy," adding that the story "reflects both American values and American democracy, but also the power of an individual to make a difference in our democracy.”

The Treasury Department hopes to release the design concept for the new bills by 2020, the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in the United States. Lew said that he had already directed the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to accelerate the process for these bills. He wouldn't name a specific date for their release, but said that a rumored date of 2030 "is not a date that has any status."

Lew first announced in June 2015 that the Treasury was considering removing Hamilton from the $10 bill, to allow a woman to appear on the front of a paper note for the first time since Martha Washington was taken off the $1 silver certificate. The $10 bill was already slated for a redesign in 2020. The bills are regularly reworked to prevent counterfeiting.

The Treasury was moved in part by a viral campaign in early 2015 to put a woman’s portrait on the new $20 bill in 2020, to mark the centennial of women’s suffrage. The group “Women on $20s” received more than 600,000 online and in-person votes for a choice of 15 American women, including Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt. Tubman received the most votes.

But the Treasury's announcement drew a backlash from supporters of Hamilton, who, as an aide to George Washington and the first secretary of the treasury, helped erect the U.S. economic and banking system. Hamilton has gained notoriety in recent years due to the success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway play, which earlier this week won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The debate sparked a grass-roots movement to instead remove Jackson, a slave owner whose divisive presidency included removing several Native American tribes from their lands in the South, from the $20 bill. Some point out that Jackson also opposed paper currency, in favor of gold and silver.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who introduced legislation last year in support of the campaign to put a woman on the $20, released a statement saying that the move would send a powerful message about the important role women have played in U.S. history. “Women have waited long enough, and I will urge the Treasury Department to look at every possible option to expedite the release date of this new bill,” she said.

"A woman, a leader, and a freedom fighter. I can't think of a better choice for the $20 bill than Harriet Tubman," Hillary Clinton wrote on Twitter.

Ben Bernanke, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve and a proponent of keeping Hamilton on the currency, applauded the news in a blog post. "Tubman is an excellent and deserving choice, and no one has a better claim to be represented on the currency than Hamilton, who did so much to help establish the American economic system we know today," he wrote.

(End of article)

[sheikh radlinrol]

Perhaps our American friends could issue a special note (bill) bearing the portrait of our Queen, Elizabeth II, to commemorate her 90th birhday? All right, she´s not an American but I´m sure she would like to be. You could make her an honorary citizen. After all, we are your closest allies.

[grahamb]

Sounds like the sheikh has been at the sangria... or maybe the electric soup!

[sheikh radlinrol]