Women Making History
Actually, let's call it herstory instead
A note from Laura
It has rained and stormed all day in southern Kentucky. If you know the back story of this project, you know that such days rank among my very least favorite. And if you don’t, you can learn more here, or if you upgrade to paid, here. Or, you can check out the essay I wrote for the climate issue of Still: The Journal. The point is, I am not at my best after hours and hours of rain.
At the same time, this newsletter matters to me a great deal, especially now, during Women’s History Month. As I said last week, this month-long celebration is still very much on as far as I’m concerned. What’s more, women are still making history, despite what many men (and a startling number of women) seem to believe. I want to keep with the theme for the entire month if I can, and lo and behold, in today’s installment of the scanning project, I came across this “Rural Reflection” dated June 14, 1998, that perfectly fits the bill. (yes, for those keeping score at home, that’s also Flag Day).
As I read, I immediately fell down a rabbit hole learning more about the depiction of women—or more aptly put, the lack thereof—on our nation’s currency. I won’t bore you with all the details, being well aware that rabbit holes are often of interest only to the person who falls down them, but I did find some things worth sharing.
First, a renewed effort has begun in the U.S. Senate to finally, as proposed under President Obama, to get Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, an effort that, unsurprisingly, stalled between 2016 and 2020. Am I hopeful? In the United States in 2025? Not especially. But you never know—the good and right thing could happen. At least someone had the guts to get things started— and you guessed it, that someone is female—Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
Secondly, the video below does a nice recap of the history of women on U.S. coins.
And finally, the last line of Ruth’s column this week made me want to cry. If you can see us, Grandma Ruth, you know as well as we do that it should already have happened. We’ve had two more-than-worthy candidates. The road is steeper and more treacherous than any of us realized. Still, I promise you, we’re trying.
Rural Reflections
By Ruth Dennis
A coin for women
The headline in one of last Sunday’s newspapers, “Experts weigh in on which women will grace the new dollar coin,” provided me with much to think about.
The U.S. Mint plans to put a new gold-colored dollar coin in circulation by mid-2000. The coin will bear the face of a woman of history. Suggested subjects to date include Eleanor Roosevelt, the Statue of Liberty, Sacagawea, the Shoshone Indian girl who guided Lewis and Clark as well as several other women.
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin will be reviewing suggestions for the new dollar coin which will be similar in size to the Susan B. Anthony coin but which will have a distinctive edge so that it can easily be distinguished from a quarter, Rubin has named a panel of nine to assist him in making the coin design.
I began to think about other women who should be considered as well. I am quick to recognize Eleanor Roosevelt’s contributions both during the White House years and her work afterwards. She gave much of herself to the world and never lost her touch with the “common man.”
But other wives of former presidents have made lasting contributions after leaving the White House. Lady Bird Johnson's “Beautify America” has had lasting effects on our landscape. We take for granted her campaign to clean up roadsides, to plant shrubs and flowers where they can be enjoyed by everyone. Rosalynn Carter and her husband Jimmy have devoted much of their time to Habitat for Humanity since they left Washington. While this is not a program they originated, their generous gift of personal time “on the job” has done much to encourage others to do the same for Habitat for Humanity.
I thought about the Indian girl, Sacagawea, as representative of our history. But perhaps there are others to be considered as well. The choice of woman or women to appear on the face of the dollar coin can be representative of many women of our history and not necessarily of a single woman. Wouldn't a group of women representing those wives and mothers who crossed the country in covered wagons, who endured Indian skirmishes, storms, the death of one or more or their children, who made a new life for their families be equally representative?
How about Molly Pitcher, one of the heroines of the Revolutionary War? How about Clara Barton and/or Florence Nightingale? How about Amelia Earhart and/or Sally Ride?
How about a representative of the women of each century who gave their husbands and sons to battle for our country and then lost them in battle?
The Susan B. Anthony dollar was never popular, largely because it could easily be confused with a quarter. The new dollar coin will be designed differently. Perhaps “Susan” will not be considered for it but what about Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who advocated women's rights and achieved some legislation, achieving a few of them, if not the right to vote? What about Rosa Parks whose refusal to go to the back of the bus was one of the starting points for the Civil Rights movement?
What about a representative of women of more modern times? What about those women of the “depression years” who made do, did without so their children could be fed and clothed? What about the women of World War II who went to work (often for the first time) in the war plants or those who served in the women's branches of the Army and Navy? What about the women in today's armed forces—women who now serve alongside the men?
What about some of the other women of today? Women are now CEOs of major corporations, governors, senators, publishers, Supreme Court justices. Couldn't there be some consideration of these women?
Or how about a representative of “today's mothers”? I am not certain how this could be designed. There is the single parent mother, the mother bringing “the blended family” into harmony, the mother who combines job and parenting and there is the full-time mother. They represent the choices and roles of women today.
Many of my suggestions, however, could not even be considered by the auspicious committee of nine, appointed to recommend the design of the new dollar coin. Rereading the news story, I found that no one that was still alive could be considered. Well, there went so many of my suggestions.
“’The symbol’ or person on the coin should be absolutely recognizable by everyone in America,” said Delaware Congressman Michael Castle, sponsor of the legislation establishing the gold color dollar coin. He added, “that was one of the problems with the Susan B. Anthony coin. It was a little too much of a history lesson.”
Reading his comments, I realized, it will be hard to make the right decision as to “which woman will grace the new dollar coin?”
But I had been given something to think about as I considered many possibilities I might recommend if I were on “the committee.”
But, I really would suggest the issuing of the new coin be delayed slightly so that the first woman president of the United States could have the honor.
Ruth Dennis resides in Jasper.
