Born into it: The Queen appears on every note by default, not because of her achievements

A Bank of England spokesman said: “The Bank did consider the representation of women when selecting the next figure to feature on a banknote. The selection decision was made taking into account objectively selected criteria. Four candidates, three men a woman, were considered when Sir Winston Churchill was chosen as the historical character to appear on the next new banknote, and the female candidate was chosen as the contingency candidate.”

However, The Women's Room is not impressed, arguing in its petition: "An all-male line-up on our banknotes sends out the damaging message that no woman has done anything important enough to appear. This is patently untrue."

It says that by removing the only female from the current selection of admirable figures chosen to feature on the reverse of the notes, the Bank is failing young women, who it says are growing up seeing "a parliament that is 57th equal in the world when it comes to female representation; a media where only one in five experts is a woman; and a business world where female directors represent only 16.7% of the total."

There is no set time period between updates on banknotes, the Bank of England confirmed to Stylist, so it's not known how long the currency will be dominated by men if the plan to replace Fry goes ahead in 2016.

What do you think to a male-dominated currency? Should Fry be replaced by another woman and if so, who? Have your say below or on Twitter.

Battle to keep women on banknotes