Women across the country, including actresses such as Susan Sarandon, are taking selfies with President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill and sharing their photos on social media in support of an effort to put a woman's face on the bill.
Sojourner Truth
A portrait of Sojourner Truth circa 1864. The caption reads, “I sell the shadows to support the substance.” She was an activist and speaker who supported women’s rights and abolition of slavery. She was born a slave but escaped, and in 1864 she met President Abraham Lincoln at the White House.
(Library of Congress)
Library of Congress
Harriet Tubman
This portrait of Harriet Tubman was taken between 1860 and 1875. The caption notes she was a nurse, spy and scout. According to The Associated Press, she was born into slavery but escaped to Philadelphia in 1849, and provided valuable intelligence to Union forces during the Civil War. She was born in Dorcester County, Maryland.
(Library of Congress)
Library of Congress
Clara Barton
Clara Barton, who is well-known for her service on the battlefields during the Civil War and for her work establishing the American Red Cross, is seen in this undated black-and-white file photo.
(AP Photo/National Archives)
AP Photo/National Archives
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Shown in this undated photo is Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton helped organized the world’s first women’s rights convention, which met in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. She became first president of the National Women’s Suffrage Association and held that office from 1869-1890.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
Susan B. Anthony
This portrait of Susan B. Anthony was taken sometime between 1890 and 1906. She and Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked together to fight for women’s suffrage. Together, they formed the American Equal Rights Association.
(Library of Congress)
Library of Congress
Alice Paul
Alice Paul, chair of the National Women’s Party, takes up needle and thread to put the last stitch in the suffrage banner, which now has 36 stars representing the 36 states which ratified the suffrage amendment. Photo circa 1932.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
Eleanor Roosevelt
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt joined her guests as she entertained at a Garden Party on June 12, 1942, in Washington at the south lawn of the White House for the more than 400 soldiers detailed to guard the executive mansion. They were watching an entertainer. During her time in the White House, she focused on the needs of children, laborers and minority groups. Later, she served as a delegate to the United Nations and championed human rights.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks, right, and E.D. Nixon, left, former president of the Alabama NAACP, arrive at court in Montgomery March 19, 1956, for the trial in the racial bus boycott. Mrs. Parks was fined $14 on Dec. 5, 1955, for failing to move to the segregated section of a city bus. The boycott started on the day she was fined. There were 91 other defendants. Her actions made her a symbol of the Civil Rights era.
(AP Photo/Gene Herrick)
AP Photo/Gene Herrick
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins served as Secretary of Labor from March 1933 to June 1945. She was the first woman to hold a Cabinet position. Here she is shown about the time when she returned from an International Labor Organization Conference at Geneva in 1952.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
Rachel Carson
Holding her controversial book “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson stands in her library in Silver Spring, Maryland, on March 14, 1963. She says she “wanted to bring to public attention” to her charges that pesticides were destroying wildlife and endangering the environment. Her book led to the study of pesticides.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
Margaret Sanger
In this May 1961 file photo, renowned birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger is seen in New York. Sanger began her crusade back in 1912 when she was working on the lower east side of New York and saw women resorting to back-alley, illegal abortions. One too many of these women died in her arms, and she said “Enough.” Sanger, together with philanthropist Katharine McCormick, bankrolled the work of Gregory Pincus, the man Sanger convinced to develop the Pill. America’s favorite birth control method turned 50 in 2010.
(AP Photo/File)
AP Photo/File
Shirley Chisholm
In this file photo, Shirley Chisholm, Democratic congresswoman seeking the nomination for president, makes a point during a speech in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 16, 1972. She was the first African-American woman elected to Congress. As a member of the House of Representatives, she represented Brooklyn, New York.
(AP Photo/ Richard Drew)
AP Photo/ Richard Drew
Betty Friedan
Women’s rights activist Betty Friedan addresses a conference on “Women: A Political Force” at the State Assembly chamber in Albany, N.Y. on Nov. 13, 1971. The two-day conference was called by the women’s unit of the governor’s office to stimulate and unite New York State women to increase the effectiveness of their political power. Her manifesto “The Feminine Mystique” became a best-seller in the 1960s and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
Barbara Jordan
In this July 12, 1976, file photo, Rep. Barbara Jordan, of Texas, waves as she speaks to the Democratic National Convention in New York City. Jordan was the first black and first woman to deliver the party’s keynote address: “My presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American dream need not be forever deferred,” she said. According to the campaign Women on 20s, Jordan was the first black woman from the Deep South elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
(AP Photo/File)
AP Photo/File
Wilma Mankiller
In this Sept. 19, 1996 file photo, Wilma Mankiller, former Cherokee Nation chief, speaks during a news conference in Tulsa, Okla. Mankiller was one of the few women ever to lead a major American Indian tribe.
(AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
AP Photo/Michael Wyke
Patsy Mink
Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, takes part in a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing on the whether to issue subpoenas on the 1996 Teamsters elections. She cowrote and sponsored the education law amendment better known today as Title IX, which ensures women and girls have equal opportunities in education. The law also opened up athletics to female students.
(AP Photo/Karin Cooper)
WASHINGTON – It started as a revelation and is now a full-blown movement on social media.
Women across the country, including actresses such as Susan Sarandon, are taking selfies with President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill and sharing their photos on social media in support of an effort to put a woman’s face on the bill.
Susan Ades Stone, of Women on the 20s, says founder Barbara Ortiz Howard realized when rifling through her wallet at a coffee shop that there were no women on any U.S. paper money. What she didn’t initially realize was how simple the codes that govern the money are.
“It does not have to be a president or a founding father. It can be someone who has done something great and should be recognized,” Ades Stone says.
In fact, she says, the qualifications are merely that the person be deceased at least two years, have lived a life of great stature and be recognizable to the public.
“The treasury secretary has it within his power to make decisions on redesign,” Ades Stone says.
And while Ades Stone says the $20 note is up for redesign to keep up with counterfeiting technology and the U.S. Department of Treasury has allocated the money to pay for that, it’s a lengthy process.
“So we’re starting now, and we really believe that this is something the public should be involved in,” she says.
On the Women on the 20s website, you can vote for three of your favorite women leaders in American history, including Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony.
They’re hoping to get one of 16 candidates printed on the $20 bill by 2020, marking the centennial of the women’s suffrage movement.
