Glamour and Glory: The Symbolic Imagery of Women on Paper Money

Abstract

Important influences on our thinking and understanding may come from the least expected sources, everyday objects which we take for granted. Few people would think of looking at banknotes for clues to the status of women, assuming that they would offer only atypical figureheads, of monarchs or heads of states, and these mainly male. Yet for over 200 years paper money across the world has been adorned with an extraordinary range of images of women, including neo-classical allegories, glamorous cotton-pickers, smiling tractor-drivers and Nobel prize-winners. The aim of this chapter is to examine briefly why images of women have been chosen for notes, how they have been used to convey particular messages, and how this in turn might affect our perception of women.¹