US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday praised fellow pioneers at the unveiling of the first US banknotes printed with two women's signatures, while calling for more work to advance equity for women and minorities.
The new banknotes produced at the Treasury s Bureau of Engraving and Printing BEP site in Fort Worth, Texas, are a reminder of the contributions of women who have worked at Treasury and in economics, according to Yellen, the first woman to head the Treasury and chair the US Federal Reserve.
She was joined by US Treasury Chief Lynn Malerba, the first Native American to serve in that role, to see $1 and $5 bills printed with their signatures on the site.
Yellen told Malerba: "Oh my gosh," Yellen told Malerba. Asked how she felt, a beaming Yellen told reporters: Excited. The banknotes, which will be delivered to the Federal Reserve this month and enter circulation next year, are the first to carry the signature of a female Treasury chief and a Native woman.
Fort Worth - one of two in the United States - prints over 50% of US paper currency each year. A BEP official said that the other two in Washington will begin printing the bills in January or February.
We have made progress in providing greater economic opportunities for women at Treasury and in the economics profession. Yellen told printers that much more needs to be done, but we know that much more needs to be done, he said. I hope that today is a reminder of the road we have traveled on equity and inclusion. I hope it motivates us to continue to move forward. Malerba choked up when she talked about seeing her signature on the new bills as the first Native American treasurer, remembering the financial struggles her parents and six siblings faced when she was growing up. She said that moment was history. Two women on the currency for the first time is momentous. Gita Gopinath, the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, welcomed the new bills and said she was very excited to spend one for the first time.
Janet Yellen is an inspiration for all economists. She said that it means a lot to me and my colleagues that she will be the first female Treasury secretary with her signature on the dollar note.
In her remarks, Yellen said Treasury led the first major effort to hire women into the federal government during the Civil War, and singled out Jennie Douglas as the first woman hired in that cohort and Sophia Holmes, the first Black woman.
It took until the 1930s before Josephine Roche was nominated as the first female assistant Treasury secretary, but women now comprise 62% of the Treasury's workforce, up from an estimated 44% in a 2020 study.
Academic data shows that women account for only 34% of their PhDs in economics and 30% of professors at Yale University in the early 1970s, and that Yellen was the only woman in her doctorate program at Yale University in the early 1970s.
Cecilia Rouse, who is the first black woman to head the Council of Economic Advisers, told Reuters that the new banknotes marked an important milestone.
She said that it shows that we are finally getting the insight from important parts of our economy and society.