A student is preparing for a potential court battle with the Bank of England after starting a petition against its decision to replace the only female historical figure on English banknotes with a man.
Caroline Criado-Perez, who grew up in Rutland, had no idea how big her campaign would become when she set up the online petition in April.
But it has now been signed by nearly 30,000 people and she has the support of dozens of MPs.
Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King announced that social reformer Elizabeth Fry would be replaced by former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill on the £5 bank note from 2016.
The decision means there will be no women represented on the British banknote, apart from the Queen.
Caroline now has a legal team representing her, which said the Bank of England was failing in its duties to eliminate gender discrimination under the Equality Act.
The 29-year-old said she was fully prepared to take her fight to court, if it came to that.
"When I started, I was just thinking I couldn't let them get away with it," said Caroline, who is studying for a masters in gender at the London School of Economics.
"I started the petition in a moment of anger and it snowballed from there. We had 22,000 signatures in the first week, it was just incredible."
Solicitors Deighton Pierce Glynn got in touch with Caroline to say it thought she had a strong case to challenge the decision. She set up a website to raise money to cover her potential legal costs two weeks ago – and has already collected more than £11,600.
"I need to raise about £13,000," said Caroline. "It's exciting in that I'm really pleased so many people can see why it's important but it's also sad we're having to go to these lengths in the first place, just to get one woman on a banknote – it's not really a big ask.
"I thought if I made enough noise, the bank might listen to reason.
"I never expected to go to court but I will if I have to because I think it's important.
"At the moment, I'm waiting for a response to a second letter. We'll see what they say."
Caroline, who runs The Women's Room, a web database of female experts, said if it was her decision, she would put British biophysicist Rosalind Franklin on the £5 note.
"She wasn't recognised for the things she did and that's exactly what we're talking about here, women being ignored," said Caroline.
A Bank of England spokeswoman said three men and a woman were considered during the selection process for the next person to feature on a banknote.
She said: "Four candidates 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."
Donate to Caroline's campaign by visiting:
http://www.gofundme.com/ banknotes
You can sign the petition at: www.change.org/banknotes
