MoneyWeek launches Noteworthy Figures campaign on International Women’s Day

As we enter International Women’s Day 2024, MoneyWeek launched its ‘Noteworthy Figures’ campaign, calling on the Bank of England to address the stark gender inequality on the back of UK banknotes.

Since the Bank started featuring historical figures on the back of banknotes, there have been only three women to 16 men and ethnic minorities have never been featured on UK banknotes.

Kalpana Fitzpatrick, digital editor of MoneyWeek, said: “International Women’s Day is a reminder of the many inequalities women face. While we continue to fight the gender pay gap, pension gap, and even the wealth gap, it is clear we are still also contending with the representation gap.

“The Bank stresses it looks for characters who have made an important contribution to our society and culture. The UK has many remarkable British women, many of whom are talked about in history books and classrooms, yet do not have a spot on UK banknotes.

Since 1970, when the bank started introducing historical figures, it has featured Florence Nightingale in 1975, Elizabeth Fry in 2002 and Jane Austen in 2017.

MoneyWeek’s Noteworthy Figures campaign called for the Bank of England to fully recognise the lack of female representation and diversity of UK banknotes and for the next new banknote to feature a woman.

In an open letter to the Bank of England, MoneyWeek asked the Bank’s governor Andrew Bailey to address the lack of female representation on UK banknotes.

Read the letter and discover more about MoneyWeek here