With all the controversy over removing Alexander Hamilton from the $10 and replacing him with a woman, Ken Dixon, blogger for the Connecticut Hearst newspapers, has a novel idea. He proposes having a new denomination—an $8 bill.
 |
In his blog on the subject, Dixon bases his suggestion on the gender wage gap. “The $8 bill will have meaning that’s easily understood. Women make 78 cents for every dollar earned by men, or about $8 for every $10.”
He also proposes that not just one woman be selected, but that a variety of women be honored on the new $8 bill, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Harriet Tubman.
Maybe female employees can use their $8 bills to pay for items at a new store in Pittsburgh that offers one price to men and a 24% discounted price to women in an effort to bridge the gender pay gap in Pennsylvania, where women make 76% of what men make.
According to an article on the KDKA/CBS Pittsburgh website, the store owner knows she is practicing gender discrimination, but does so to make a point. “It’s tongue-in-cheek,” said owner Elana Schlenker in the article. “I don’t really believe in discrimination. That’s why I’m doing this.”
Of course, they’re not actually removing Alexander Hamilton from the $10–he’ll still be on there, just not as prominently. You can’t leave a woman to her own devices, after all. She needs supervision.