League of Women Voters Asks Why Women Couldn’t Grace the Front of the New $10 Bill

The League honors the legacy of the suffrage movement, continues to provide necessary information to all voters

Washington, DC – “The inspirational leaders who fought to secure the right to vote for women – Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and the League’s founder, Carrie Chapman Catt, believed in the power of women to create a more perfect democracy. Today, we are pleased by the announcement that some of their images will grace our currency as well as the announcement that Harriet Tubman will be featured on the $20 bill and Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson will be featured on the $5 bill,” said Elisabeth MacNamara, president of the League of Women Voters of the U.S.

“Earlier this year when Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, announced that the new $10 bill would be redesigned, many Americans were excited by the prospect of a woman being featured on the front of the bill. Instead, the leaders of the suffrage movement have been pushed to the back. The design of the new bills will be unveiled in 2020 to mark the centennial anniversary of the 19^th amendment which granted women the right to vote in 1920. We owe it to our foremothers to do more to honor them and continue Making Democracy Work®,” continued MacNamara.

“The League was founded, nearly 100 years ago, because suffragists like Carrie Chapman Catt understood that more than 20 million new women voters were going to need reliable information in order to carry out their new responsibilities as voters. The League stands tall as the living legacy of the women’s suffrage movement; what we were founded to provide new women voters in 1920, we continue to provide,” MacNamara stated.

“As voters throughout the country weigh in through the primary process, we are reminded we still have so much work to do. Leagues across the country continue to register tens of thousands of voters annually, while also providing needed voter information through printed and online voters’ guides, candidate and issue debates and forums as well as fighting back against attempts to limit the right to vote. Our supporters remain diligent in their commitment to ensuring all voters have the information and protections they need to cast a ballot,” MacNamara continued.

“Every woman who has used the power of her vote has changed this country and changed the world. In every election, we have the potential and the power to do it again. Together, we can make our democracy more perfect. The suffragists believed it; the League believes it, too,” MacNamara concluded.

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Learn more about upcoming elections in your community or start the voter registration process with VOTE411.org. The League of Women Voters is a founding partner of 2020 Women’s Vote Centennial Initiative (WVCI), a collaboration commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the passage of the 19^th Amendment.