Jane Austen leads fight against gender prejudice on England's bank notes - Women's Agenda

Jane Austen leads fight against gender prejudice on England’s bank notes

Earlier this year the Bank of England announced it would be replacing 19th century social reformer Elizabeth Fry with Winston Churchill on the 5-pound note. In response it got an earful from critics, with women’s rights groups claiming the bank was “airbrushing” British women from history.

Under threat of legal action from campaigners who said they would sue the bank for failing to uphold the country’s 2010 Equality Act, the bank swiftly responded, announcing yesterday that Pride and Prejudice author Jane Austen would now take pride of place on its 10-pound note.

The announcement was a success for campaigners who launched their protests just two months ago, and will also see a review of the process the bank uses to select historical figures for banknotes. Apart from the Queen, Fry and Florence Nightingale are the only other historical women to have been represented on British currency.

Journalist and Women’s Room founder Caroline Criado-Perez, who led the campaign, told The Telegraph: “This is a brilliant day for women and a fantastic one for people power. Without this campaign, without the 35,000 people who signed our Change.org petition, the Bank of England would have unthinkingly airbrushed women out of history”.

Austen will replace Charles Darwin on the 10-pound note, set to be released in 2016, but whether her quote will be “money is the best recipe for happiness” has not been confirmed.

In Australia, while the gender pay gap rages on, it seems we’ve at least managed to achieve gender parity on our bank notes.

While Queen Elizabeth II features on all coins, women also appear on one side of every bank note.

The current line-up of female faces on our currency include convict and successful businesswoman Mary Reibey, the first female member of Australian parliament Edith Cowan, socialist poet and journalist Dame Mary Gilmore and Dame Nellie Melba.

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