Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced that union spy and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman would be replacing President Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill Wednesday, a win for many women advocacy groups, yet sparking criticism from people like Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. In addition to the change on the 20, women suffragists and civil rights leaders will be honored on the five and the ten.

As a young woman, I could not be more elated for this momentous occasion for women and people of color. When I got that New York Times notification on my phone, all I could think was ‘finally.’ Internally, when I, as an American, think of the legendary Americans we feature on our currency, there’s one word that comes to the forefront of my mind: leader.

When I was in elementary school, I remember reading Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky and thinking that’s the kind of person I want to be when I grow up. Someone who thinks of others before herself, who fights for a cause greater than herself. Harriet Tubman is a role model, an American hero and leader, and if putting her on a $20 bill is something that we can do to honor her legacy and life’s work, then it’s the least we can do. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, all leaders and thinkers who set precedent for American ideals and government, who are now featured on American currency and I think Harriet Tubman did the same.  

Even past honoring Tubman herself, featuring an African-American woman on national currency is another step in the right direction. The last time that a woman was featured on currency was over a century ago when Martha Washington was featured on the little-used $1 silver certificates in 1886, 1891 and 1896, which were later taken out of circulation. A person of African-American descent, male or female, has never graced American currency up until this point, making Tubman’s introduction to the twenty even more significant. Representing both women and African-Americans on the front of the twenty allows for a better representation of the American people, beyond the standard of Caucasian men currently represented on the bills, but even more importantly highlighting the importance of a generation of civil rights leaders and suffragists who deserve to be recognized for their reform efforts.

In a time when equal pay for women and gender equality is a source of contention, both in the media and in our government, featuring a woman on our literal symbol of pay and money is important. From my perspective, how can we say that half of our population is considered equal in terms of economic equality if the idea of featuring an influential and heroic woman on a form of our currency can turn into a political fight? In my mind, it shouldn’t even be a question.

Despite criticism and outrage, my heart is happy knowing that when I am out in the world living as an adult, I can pay for a coffee and hand the barista a $5 bill featuring not only the Lincoln Memorial, but depictions of a historic performance by classical singer Marian Anderson who sang in front of the memorial when she was restricted from singing at Constitutional Hall because of segregation, my personal hero, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the remarkable Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech from the memorial’s very steps. I can hand a cashier a $20, knowing that the bill features a 1913 march in support of the woman’s right to vote and female suffrage leaders like Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. As an American, I can’t help but be proud of that, and I am ashamed that this is even an issue.