To think they could find at least ONE inspirational woman to put on our bank notes?

[MiniPenguinMaker]

I have to admit that I felt a bit miffed when I saw that Elizabeth Fry was being phased out and replaced by Winston Churchill from 2016.

There will be NO women left on British currency. Surely they could find a few? Emmeline Pankhurst perhaps?!

It gives the impression that the achievements of British women are not considered worthy of recognition. I have been getting really grumpy about this. I wonder who makes these decisions and whether this has even occurred to them. Am I being unreasonable to feel peeved that us women make up a significant proportion of the population and yet when we pay for things with our hard-earned cash it is a bunch of dead white men on there?

[perfectstorm]

Obviously they wouldn't put it simply to public vote, otherwise we'd end up with David Beckham on the back of one of the notes!

As opposed to a shortlist of 20, suggested by the public and deemed appropriate, you mean?

My understanding is, the Bank of England asked the public who they would most like to see on one of our bank notes, and Winston Churchill came top by a zillion miles.

How did they "ask the public"? And did you really expect him to say he chose the person he most liked the idea of on national radio? Sorry but that makes no sense: they didn't ask, they accepted some suggestions and he selected the one he liked. It's a perk of the job, in fairness. But it's perfectly reasonable to think an all-male list is a bit much, albeit in keeping with the senior staff at the BoE and the Treasury. In fairness, I doubt gender ever crossed King's mind. That's a large part of the problem.

[KittenofDoom]

Looking at it another way, if they just swapped a woman for another woman, they would always be on the lowest denomination note. I think Florence was on the tenner, so maybe a woman will get to be on the £20 note next time that's due for a change.

[edam]

Thank you for sharing the story of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, PerfectStorm. I didn't know about her. An astounding discovery - as you say, on a par with Newton and Einstein, and yet she's been written out of history. Shameful.

[olivertheoctopus]

Clearly they need to put Mary Berry on a banknote...