Header by Rory Midhani
It was Thanksgiving. Or was it Christmas? Honestly, all I remember is that there was this holiday where I brought a very sacred dessert home with me from college and then drank some wine and ended up sitting at a family meal screaming about feminism with my eyes half-shut.
“I just don’t get why they can’t put women on the money!” I was literally yelling at the top of my lungs. “You know who I wanna see on the money? NICKI MINAJ. THAT’S WHO I WANNA SEE ON THE MONEY. MADONNA. HILLARY CLINTON. Why is Benjamin Franklin on the hundred, anyway? What did he do, turn back time? Well, you know who turned back time? CHER. PUT CHER ON THE HUNDRED!”
Needless to say, I didn’t make as persuasive an argument for women on currency as activists in Canada and the United States currently pushing to rectify the Money Man Problem (as distinct from every other Man Problem.) In Canada, a Change.org petition demands the nation of free healthcare, maple syrup, and really kind people add some ladies to their beautiful multicolored bill collection. An American campaign to kick Andrew Jackson, literal worst President ever, off of the $20 bill in exchange for a badass chick is currently accepting votes for who they’ll put forward. (Unfortunately, Wilma Mankiller isn’t on there so I probably won’t live my dreams anytime soon of asking people, “what, you never seen a mankiller before?”)
All these campaigns got me thinking: who are the women who have been on the money? What are their stories? Do they have great hair? What I found were heroines and everyday people, celebrities and socialites. These were some of my favorites, in chronological order of when their beautiful faces were first birthed into our worlds by various mints.
Thank you to this website in particular.
1881: Empress Jingu (Japan)
Empress Jingu may or may not have ruled Japan from the year 201 and led an army invasion of Korea. Her name has been removed from official historical documents, with experts instead naming her son the 15th Japanese imperial ruler. In the face of patriarchy and also an incredible lack of evidence or understanding of what the world was even like in 201, she’s become a legend in Japan. Well, that and also that her story is literally the stuff of legend, but NBD. Don’t tell a historian the truth about women anytime soon, y’all.
1900: “Zella” (Brazil)
The “Zella” banknote features an engraving by Sukeichi Oyamaa based on a portrait by Conrad Kiesel and, apparently, stirred a lot of controversy, except all the proof I could find was poorly written and difficult to comprehend? So, there’s that. It seems like it might just be a woman who was sleeping with Kiesel or maybe one of his friends, though, which is very Lana Del Rey.
1914: Polyhymnia (Mexico)
Polyhymnia is the Greek Muse of sacred poetry and hymn, dance, agriculture, elegance, and pantomime, the latter of which is my favorite art form obviously. She appeared in Dante’s Divine Comedy in Paradiso, which is nice because it would have been sad to see her in one of the circles of Hell.
1942: Women Who Stand for Things (France)
If you like your chicks in twos a la Drake and also my life story, this is the bill for you. This franc depicts a woman holding an olive branch and otherwise symbolizing peace on the front and a blonde girl on the back with “ears of wheat and two daisies stuck in her hair,” which is I hope how I appear in other people’s memories.
1948: Marianne and Madagascar Woman (Madagascar)
These two lovely ladies are an allegory for the French Republic of Madagascar. Marianne — who has a name it seems! — is holding a map of Madagascar Island and acting like she discovered it, which seems typical. “Madagascar woman,” who totally should have a name but lost it in a racist patriarchal world, is holding a basket of fruit.
1956: “Nude Women” (French West Africa)
So the description of this bill said it had “nude women” on the front but like, come on, those women aren’t nude, currency website! Why you gotta make me click on stuff like that! They’re just hanging out! That being said, I think depicting three everyday women talking and leaning on one another is, in and of itself, a deeply feminist act. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Also, I want that dress on the left so badly.
1957: Danse Macabre (Switzerland)
I’m sorry, can we just take a moment here to soak this in? A woman, depicted on front and back of this bill, appears to be in the middle of being summoned to her death by a bunch of, well, dead people during the Dance of Death. Also, this is an entire piece of currency depicting the Dance of Death. If this isn’t the most metal thing you’ve seen today, I’m impressed.
1967: Agatha Barbara (Malta)
Agatha Barbara was Malta’s first-ever woman President and third President ever, as well as a Labour member in Parliament and Minister. She was part of the Maltese Labour Party’s executive committee and headed the party’s women’s branch. She also founded the Women’s Political Movement in Malta. I’m pretty sure if I lived in Malta I’d owe little ol’ Aggie everything.
1983: Queen Elizabeth (Isle of Man)
I told myself I wouldn’t put Queen Elizabeth or any of the other iterations of British Queens on this list because it’s too easy, and imperialism and colonialism, and those ladies smack their faces on everything before they die. But the fact that Queen Elizabeth is depicted on notes and coins, like all of them, from the Isle of goddamn motherfucking Man, is so subversive, sweet, and amazing that it provided me with the glimmer of hope I needed to get through this hellish week upon my discovery of said fact. Like, get it together, America. If the Isle of Man can put a woman on the money I think we can get over all of mankind now.
Also, instead of dropping a mic here, I’m dropping this coin. It’s so on-brand.
1991: Caroline Chisholm (Australia)
Caroline Chisholm was a progressive English humanitarian who did some gender-based advocacy in her time and was subsequently enshrined for it on this bank note in Australia. Filed Under: Reasons I Really Want to Go to Australia.
1992: Aphrodite (Cyprus)
Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess of love, beauty, sex, and pleasure. In the 8th grade, we did an intensive lesson on Greek mythology that culminated in a character potluck where we ate Greek food and dressed up as different Gods, Goddesses, Muses, and woodland nymphs. I chose to be Aphrodite, which I consider to be some of the best foreshadowing I’ve done in my young life. I will never not be your soul twin, girl.
1996: Clara Schumann (Germany)
Clara Schumann was a musician and composer who wrote her piano concerto at fourteen and performed it two years later, kicking off a 61-year career. I’m pretty sure after looking into her life that she “made piano cool again,” but don’t quote me on that just because I put it in quotes. Her husband was also a composer and helped her write that first concerto at fourteen, but Clara is way more badass.
1997: Various Women But Especially the One on the Tractor (Eritrea)
That woman on the tractor is just fucking living it up. She’s living the life, you guys. I would absolutely love to be her. Also, a fun fact: Eritrea’s currency features a ton of everyday women throughout, which is nice because everyday men typically have value but you have to be a space-travelling, death-defying mythological creature of wonder to even get a cab when you’re a woman.
2004: The Famous Five (Canada)
Alberta’s Famous Five (Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung,Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy, and Irene Parlby) campaigned for women’s inclusion in the Canadian government when they discovered that the fairer sex (ha!) was barred from being appointed to the Senate because of some shitty law from eons before that had nevertheless shaped their lives. Canada doesn’t print this piece of currency anymore, probably because of the patriarchy, but for a while there they won the award for most badass bitches on a banknote ever.
2004: Jenny Lind (Sweden)
Jenny Lind, known as the “Swedish Nightingale,” was an opera singer and Sweden’s first international celebrity sensation. She was a court singer and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. There are no recordings of her singing, although she was one of the most heralded vocalists of her time, and men have obviously come forward to claim that most of the positive press about her was paid, planted, or otherwise underserved under a contemporary lens. To them I say, put your money where you mouth is, except, ohhhhhh shit!
Rebel Girls is a column about women’s studies, the feminist movement, and the historical intersections of both of them. It’s kind of like taking a class, but better – because you don’t have to wear pants. To contact your professor privately, email carmen at autostraddle dot com. Ask questions about the lesson in the comments!
Holy hell these notes look badass. Mostly because women. But also- COLOURS ahhh. I didn’t know money was so cool looking.
I need to get out more, it seems.
AMERICAN MONEY IS SO BORING. why can’t we have blue and purple and pink bills!
my girlfriend’s brother’s boyfriend (well that was a mouthful) is colombian and one of my favorite things he has ever said was: “american bills look like they were designed by george w. bush in his basement using powerpoint and a few google image searches”
and now every time i really look at it, i get embarrassed by our currency all over again.
my favorite thing about our currency is that the 100 on the new ones looks like it was straight ripped from wordart which was brought to my attention by this delightful tumblr post (http://sundaysspaceship.tumblr.com/post/108779038555)
I keep scrolling back up and looking at it again and scrolling back up over and over and I can’t stop laughing, that is the best post I’ve ever seen
These are so great.
I would be really pumped if the US took inspiration from that Danse Macabre note.
what if it was cher, madonna, nicki minaj, and some other people doing the danse macabre tho
into it.
So cool! The Eritrea was especially brilliant, which is tragic considering their current state.
I can add to your list another note, from Israel, of a former Prime Minister named .
I messed up with the link. She was called Golda Meir and you can see the note here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Golda_Meir_@_Banknote_1992_Obverse.jpg
Yeah…too bad she was an American colonial settler who actively worked to erase Palestinians’ existence from their indigenous homeland…but you know…yay women!
Interesting….Czech Republic has currently 6 notes and women are on two. That’s not bad. I did quick research and historically we had quite few. And it looks like in 1920s the ladies were crashing it 5:2 :D
It seems that my eastern european POB could be considered feminist or progressive…..Well there’s oxymoron if i’ve ever seen one… :D
This is so cool!
Also I really like Danse Macabre and haven’t listened to it in ages, so I just googled it and somehow an album called The Origin of the Feces came up in my search results. So that’s exciting.
Awesome article. This made me double check our own currency.
We have 2 of the 5 notes in NZ with women on them. Queen Elizabeth on the $20 and Kate Sheppard on the $10, who led the fight for women’s suffrage here.
Fully here for Andrew Jackson’s evil ass getting off my money and also buried in the annals of history, never to be mentioned again apart from, “Hey, remember that dickface? What were people thinking, voting for him?”
Also, the W20 campaign announced that Wilma Mankiller is going to be in the Final 4 vote: https://twitter.com/womenon20s/status/578216220794707968
I had to explain to some foreign visitors once why Andrew Jackson was on the $20, and I had trouble coming up with anything beside the Battle of New Orleans.
If Margaret Sanger (or any white woman, but it best not be Sanger) ends up on that bill, replacing Jackson, I WILL RIOT. Like, yeah, nearly anyone would be better than Jackson, but still. I’m MOST for Wilma Mankiller, considering that she’s ndn and I’m ndn and Jackson was responsible for the brunt of ndn genocide. Sojourner Truth is my next choice. En fin. Sorry Margaret Sanger.
moment of silence as we imagine a world where people see the word “mankiller” on a semi-regular basis. moment of silence as we imagine a world where college students use “mankillers” to buy booze and drugs. moment of silence as we reflect on wilma fucking mankiller. moment of silence as we imagine a world in which andrew jackson is replaced by WILMA. FUCKING. MANKILLER.
YASSSSSSSSSSS.
I met Wilma Mankiller when I was little at an ndn event my ndn grandmother took me to, and I had no idea who she was (b/c again, I was like five). Anyway, my grandmother dragged me up there (I was a shy kid once upon a time) because all the elders were blessing the kids and she blessed me and while I was NOT happy that she put her hands on me, my grandmother made me stand there and take it. AND I AM SO HAPPY SHE DID. My lord. She is a god. Have you seen The Cherokee Word for Water? God I love her. She had so much to say about being an ndn, about being a woman, about being an ndn woman…I WANT HER FACE AND NAME ON ALL THE THINGS.
And I raise you a queer woman on a note
Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka who, rumour has it, was bisexual on a 200 hryvnia note.
Look at all that neckwear!! Definitely queer.
ugh so sad i missed this one! thank you for adding it! SO BADASS AND ALSO WHAT NICE QUEER COLORS
Policarpa Salavarrieta: She has been depicted on Colombian Currency many times over the years.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policarpa_Salavarrieta
In Chile we have Gabriela Mistral in the $5000 bill since july 1981, she was an incredible poet AND she was a lesbian.
yes! i wanted to comment on this too! here the new gabriela bill
https://emmalva.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/gabriela-mistral-frente.jpg
I wanted to ask.. what does that greek muse to do with Mexico?… anyway its a lady still =)
Madagascar has since kicked Marianne off their bills, for obvious reasons, but now has this lady weaving a basket, which is pretty cool:
And just fyi, the adjectival form is Malagasy, not Madagascar :)
That $5 Australian note with Caroline Chisholm is from the old series of banknotes that are no longer in circulation.
In one of the rare things we seem to get right every denomination of the current series of banknotes features a woman on one side. The $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes feature a woman on one side and a man on the other while the $5 note has Queen Elizabeth on one side and parliament house on the other – so women actually outnumber men on Australian currency.
I had no idea our notes had a woman on each one?? Honestly, how did I miss that.
I only started noticing the more I handled foreign currency, although my family used to refer to money as that one with the pink/blue lady on it as kids.
I had to go check before I posted. I was pretty certain but I couldn’t remember who was on each so I looked it up to make sure.
So now I’ve learnt about more great women!
I wish I had saved a 5000 krona note from Iceland because it has this lady on it and she’s killing it in the hat department:
Her name was Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir and apparently she was a seamstress and married a couple of bishops. Also HAT.
Marianne is cool, we still have her on our euro coins and our stamps and every city hall has a bust of her.
Ahem…Golda Meir?
Another female legend on the Swedish notes is Selma Lagerlöf aka the Swedish national power dyke of all time. She also got the Nobel prize in litteratur. She got all the ladies. Must’ve been the hat!
http://www.joksankolikot.net/setelit/ruotsi/1997-20-kruunua-etu.jpg
Damn my English sucks: *literature.