h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From a BBC story - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23005416

English banknotes feature famous people on their reverse and the designs change frequently. After the next change there will be no women on any of them (apart from the Queen of course). This is obviously sexist and symptomatic of something or other no doubt.

So, who would you choose to represent women?

The Bank of England rules are -

"They must have made a lasting contribution to society, have a widely recognised name, not be controversial, and there must be good artwork on which a design can be based."

Mary Seacole is a must hero nurse of the Crimea

Grace Darling as well on this list

I'd have Pankhurst or Seacole.

If Thatcher gets her mug on a fiver, I'll start a campaign to adopt the bloody Euro.

Rosaline Franklin for my money: as well as being a woman I'd like to see scientists getting more attention. Franklin doesn't get the recognition her contribution deserves and this would be a nice way of addressing that.

Mary Wollestonecraft for her work in human rights would be a good one too.

Marianne Faithful.
And no I'm not kidding.
Have you seen "Naked Under Leather"?
Worth every penny.

~jwf~

Beatrix Potter?

She wasn't controversial. There's hardly anyone who doesn't know who she was. She did valuable work for the scientific community by painting funguses in the woods. She made a valuable contribution to land conservation. Most people know who Peter Rabbit was. There may even be some who think Potter's stories were educational.

Beatrix Potter good call

She preserved the countryside there by buying most of it and preventing development

It's an interesting conversation, but I wonder how much it matters - if five people in every hundred who've handled a five pound note could tell me anything at all about Elizabeth Fry, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

She's the one who makes Turkish Delight bars, yes?

B

Of course not.

She's Stephen's mother.

I thought she invented Crisp'n'Dry, in the 70s.

Mol

Fanny Craddock.

PP.

Off the top of my head, I'd say Octavia Hill. On further thought, I might go for Boadicea, but she could be deemed controversial.



On this subject, I thought I'd have a look what women other countries have used on their bank notes. Easiest for me to search is Germany. The earliest Deutschmark notes after 1948 (currency reform) had pictures of women, but they were copies of drawings and paintings by artists like Dürer - "A young woman of Venice" - for example. Or they were allegorical - "Justice".

In 1981, a committee actually sat down and discussed which persons were to appear on the next issue of bank notes. Particular attention was to be paid to a balanced represenation of all kinds of people, giving equality to, among other criteria, the sexes. (Info taken from wiki)

Everyone remembers Clara Schumann on the 100 Mark note. Also depicted were two lesser known (to me, anyway) women authors/poets, and Maria Merian (explorer and artist) on the 500 DM note. The men were, among others: Gauß, the mathemetician, Naumann, an architect, and the Brothers Grimm (who were on the 1000 mark note, so not many people saw them!)

Euro bank notes only show buildings, which is perhaps more fair.

Perhaps we should be choosing a more recent 'national treasure'.

Claire Balding, anyone?

The woman who got more children reading than anyone else?

Enid Blyton

Think Blyton would fail the "controversial" test....

Possibles:
1) Anon woman smiling while washing dishes: a tribute to unpaid domestic labour as the backbone to the British economy of the 1950s.
2) A collective of the Spice Girls.
3) That women that won that Celebrity Big Brother competition - you know the one with the big thingymajigs.
4) Princess Di
5) Dawn French

I guess they've worked out all the other 'stuff' to do with inequality and sexism, if the only thing left to worry about is whether there is an exact number of equal representations painted onto various banknotes
hmmm.... Betty Boop? Sam Fox? Rosaline Franklin? Dorris Day? anyone really, it doesn't really make any differnce afterall, and I bet half the population haven't a clue who's on any given denomination of banknote at any given time, cept for Queeny of course Carboon characters might be fun.... or how about famous ships? they're all female afterall