![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
You can tell it's been a slow news period lately, because one story which has cropped up more than once is who should go on the five-pound note once Elizabeth Fry's tenure expires this year. I'm not sure how they decide how long someone should stay on banknotes, but maybe the bank of England engraver is bored and wants a shot at doing someone famous. Instead she's being replaced by Winston Churchill, a move which has prompted criticism as it will mean that there will be no women represented on UK banknotes for the first time in a couple of decades*. Well, apart from the Queen, obviously, but she doesn't count as a woman because she's actually a lizard creature from Zarbatrax IV.
Anyway, the Today Programme yesterday interviewed a couple of ladies from the campaign for keeping a woman on British banknotes and they rattled on with a whole list of possible candidates, not a single one of whom I'd ever heard of. Now, it may be that the patriarchy has suppressed their rightful role in the history of our nation, but I'm an inquisitive fellow and I read a lot and when I've not heard of someone I must admit to a sneaking suspicion that their influence on the nation might have been actually less than that of, say, Adam Smith or Winston Churchill.
There was one amusing moment when it was suggested that a female politician might be a good candidate, and then the interviewees had to cast around for a female politician who wasn't Lady Astor (first female MP) or Margaret Thatcher. Eventually they settled on Margaret Bondfield (first female Cabinet Minister) as a nice safe choice as she'd been a member of the Labour party and so was acceptable, and which was also as mildly pathetic and historically revisionist as that time Jacqui Smith claimed to be some sort of pioneer for women and to have broken the glass ceiling by being the first female Home Secretary.
Speaking personally, I'm not overly fussed who is on the banknotes, but I understand some people are and so I got me to wondering - if you're going to have a woman on the tenner, who should it be? The popular choice is Jane Austin, but that seems like a rather safe, boring move. Yes, she wrote a bunch of books which are apparently very good and are very popular with the multiple cat-owning population (I've not read any of her stuff, but I'm more than happy to accept she's a far better writer than Charles Dickens whose face has disfigured the £10 note for far too long), but if you want to do something forward looking and aspirational there are far better choices.
For starters, I've said before that Emily Pankhurst has been given the short end of the stick in the memorials stakes, as her statue is popped just off a side street facing the wall and, frankly, she did way more for her fellow women than Austin ever did. Sticking her on a note would redress the balance somewhat. However, she wouldn't be my first choice. My first choice would be Ada Byron, who can stake a decent claim to being the world's first computer programmer and inferred from Babbage's notes alone the utility of a calculating engine.
But what do you think?
*If you look in the dictionary under "First world problem", this is the definition you'll find.
Anyway, the Today Programme yesterday interviewed a couple of ladies from the campaign for keeping a woman on British banknotes and they rattled on with a whole list of possible candidates, not a single one of whom I'd ever heard of. Now, it may be that the patriarchy has suppressed their rightful role in the history of our nation, but I'm an inquisitive fellow and I read a lot and when I've not heard of someone I must admit to a sneaking suspicion that their influence on the nation might have been actually less than that of, say, Adam Smith or Winston Churchill.
There was one amusing moment when it was suggested that a female politician might be a good candidate, and then the interviewees had to cast around for a female politician who wasn't Lady Astor (first female MP) or Margaret Thatcher. Eventually they settled on Margaret Bondfield (first female Cabinet Minister) as a nice safe choice as she'd been a member of the Labour party and so was acceptable, and which was also as mildly pathetic and historically revisionist as that time Jacqui Smith claimed to be some sort of pioneer for women and to have broken the glass ceiling by being the first female Home Secretary.
Speaking personally, I'm not overly fussed who is on the banknotes, but I understand some people are and so I got me to wondering - if you're going to have a woman on the tenner, who should it be? The popular choice is Jane Austin, but that seems like a rather safe, boring move. Yes, she wrote a bunch of books which are apparently very good and are very popular with the multiple cat-owning population (I've not read any of her stuff, but I'm more than happy to accept she's a far better writer than Charles Dickens whose face has disfigured the £10 note for far too long), but if you want to do something forward looking and aspirational there are far better choices.
For starters, I've said before that Emily Pankhurst has been given the short end of the stick in the memorials stakes, as her statue is popped just off a side street facing the wall and, frankly, she did way more for her fellow women than Austin ever did. Sticking her on a note would redress the balance somewhat. However, she wouldn't be my first choice. My first choice would be Ada Byron, who can stake a decent claim to being the world's first computer programmer and inferred from Babbage's notes alone the utility of a calculating engine.
But what do you think?
*If you look in the dictionary under "First world problem", this is the definition you'll find.
