Putting Tubman on $20 bill doesn’t erase earning gaps

By MICHELLE SINGLETARY

It is about time.

A woman, former slave Harriet Tubman, will be the new face of the $20 bill. Fittingly, she will bump Andrew Jackson, who owned slaves, to the back of the bill.

Also in last month’s announcement from Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew was news that other women and minorities will be depicted on the redesigned $5 and $10 bills.

The $5 bill, which will still feature Abraham Lincoln on the front, will honor historic events that took place at the Lincoln Memorial. Added to its back will be images of Martin Luther King Jr. and African-American opera singer Marian Anderson, who performed on the steps of the memorial in 1939 after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall because of her race.

The front of the new $10 note will continue to feature Alexander Hamilton, but images on the back will depict women’s suffrage leaders — Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul — and their 1913 march that ended at the Treasury building.

(To learn more about these changes to our currency, go to the Treasury website at modernmoney.treasury.gov.)

Does it really matter that women’s faces will now be on our currency?

Ivy Baker Priest, U.S. treasurer under President Dwight Eisenhower, once said that women don’t care about being depicted on money “as long as we can get our hands on it.”

Except our hands haven’t gotten on as much of it as we deserve.

Women still earn less than men. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was supposed to ensure that men and women earn the same compensation for the same job. Yet there is still a gender pay gap, and it’s even greater for women of color.

The National Women’s Law Center recently released an analysis concluding that, based on the gender gap, women would be shortchanged $430,480 over the course of a 40-year career. (The figures weren’t adjusted for inflation.)

The loss would be $877,480 for African-American women, and more than $1 million for Latinas. You can find a state-by-state look at nwlc.org.

Many African-Americans struggle financially.

A report by the Working Families Project found that, in 2013, the median net worth of white households was 13 times higher than that of African-American households.

“The wealth gap between whites and blacks is currently at its highest level since 1989,” the group said.

“Blacks also were about three times as likely as whites in 2011 to be living below the poverty line (28 percent vs. 10 percent),” wrote Rich Morin, a senior editor at Pew Research Center. “This gap has remained about the same in recent decades.”

Treasury says the final designs for the new $5, $10 and $20 notes will be unveiled in 2020, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.

“This process has been much bigger than one square inch on one bill,” Lew said. “Of course, more work remains to tell the rich and textured history of our country. But with this decision, our currency will now tell more of our story and reflect the contributions of women, as well as men, to our great democracy.”

Although a symbolic move, the currency makeover hopefully will lead to more discussions, research and efforts to close the income and wealth gaps that are financially holding back so many families.

It may not get many folks to acknowledge that much more has to be done to address economic inequality. But recognizing the hard work and sacrifices made to improve the financial lives of the disenfranchised does demonstrate these icons represent people who matter.

Because money matters.

Washington Post Writers Group

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.