--- description: Don't spend your $0.77 all at once title: If Harriet Tubman Were On the $20 Bill Instead of Andrew Jackson, It'd Only Be Worth $15.40 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1725eb0a1bd5ba8e/69869e071eebf731bd372193/tubman1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Living](/tag/time-section-living/) ## Living Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # If Women Had Their Own Currency, Here's What It Would Be Worth by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/) and [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) Jul 31, 2014 7:12 PM CUT  Photo Illustration by Alexander Ho for TIME by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/) and [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) Jul 31, 2014 7:12 PM CUT After a little girl asked President Obama why there aren’t any women on U.S. currency, he said Wednesday that adding some female faces to our cash sounded like a “pretty good idea.” Almost immediately, all of our [fantasies](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/women-who-should-be-on-the-20-bill.html "undefined") came alive on the web. What would, let’s say, Ruth Bader Ginsburg look like on a $20 bill? Where would we spend our Beyoncé $10 bill first? Will our grandmas give us a Susan B. Anthony $5 bill on our birthdays and tell us not to spend it all at once? But then we remembered: because of the wage gap, a dollar for a woman is not the same as a dollar for a man. Although the true extent of the gender pay gap is [widely disputed](http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/07/the-pay-gap-is-not-as-bad-as-you-and-sheryl-sandberg-think/ "undefined") even among feminists, President Obama said in the [2014 State of the Union](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jan/29/barack-obama/barack-obama-state-union-says-women-make-77-cents-/ "undefined") that women make only 77¢ for every dollar a man makes. So here’s what U.S. currency would really look like, with women’s faces and women’s wages: **A Harriet Tubman $20 would only be worth $15.40.**  Photo Illustration by Alexander Ho for TIME **A Sandra Day O’Connor $10 would only be worth $7.70.**  Photo Illustration by Alexander Ho for TIME **A Rosa Parks $5 would only be worth $3.85.**  Photo Illustration by Alexander Ho for TIME **A Gloria Steinem $1 would only be worth $0.77.**  Photo Illustration by Alexander Ho for TIME That just shrunk your 401(k). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3066424/if-women-had-their-own-currency-heres-what-it-would-be-worth/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3066424/if-women-had-their-own-currency-heres-what-it-would-be-worth/"},"headline":"If Women Had Their Own Currency, Here's What It Would Be Worth","datePublished":"2014-07-31T19:12:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:42:53.526Z","description":"Don't spend your $0.77 all at once","url":"https://time.com/3066424/if-women-had-their-own-currency-heres-what-it-would-be-worth/","keywords":["Living","women","Barack Obama","Money","Currency","wage gap","Harriet tubman","Gloria Steinem","Equal Pay","bill"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1725eb0a1bd5ba8e/69869e071eebf731bd372193/tubman1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1725eb0a1bd5ba8e/69869e071eebf731bd372193/tubman1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"tubman[1]","caption":"","creditText":"Photo Illustration by Alexander Ho for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3066424/if-women-had-their-own-currency-heres-what-it-would-be-worth/","name":"If Women Had Their Own Currency, Here's What It Would Be Worth"}}]}] ```