Maya Angelou & Sally Ride to Join the Few Women on U.S. Currency

As for paper money, Martha Washington’s portrait was featured on the one silver dollar note in the 1880s and 90s. Before this, Pocahontas was featured within a painting of her baptism—which is believed to have occurred while she was being held hostage by colonists—on the twenty-dollar bill in the 1860s. A woman named Lucy Pickens, an ardent supporter of slavery, was featured on several bills minted by the Confederacy.

The public has been invited to suggest women who deserve to be included in this first round of five commemorative quarters. The women must have been accomplished, have contributed significantly to the United States, and the committee is specifically seeking to “honor women from ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse backgrounds.”

The National Women’s History Museum has been tasked with sorting through submissions and they—in addition to the Smithsonian Institution American Women's History Initiative and the Bipartisan Women's Caucus—will have some say in the selection process but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will make the final decisions.

So far, the lineup is rather prestigious—Angelou and Ride were both recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom—and the execution seems set to be respectful and celebratory.

This decision, like many public-facing actions taken by the government, has been long-awaited by feminists. But as America’s understanding of gender and sexuality continues to broaden—and private institutions usher individuals outside the binary into their feminist initiatives—it is evident that much is left to be done by the government. Still, the inclusion of iconic American women like Angelou and Ride on U.S. currency is a step in the right direction.