One Hundred Years of Women’s Rights in the Financial World

Throughout recent history, women have made immense strides in gaining equality and independence within society. This October marks the 49th anniversary of women being able to open their own credit card account without needing a man to co-sigh for her, allowing her to have financial independence over her credit, which is vastly important in today’s society to have financial independence on many things.

Let’s look at the accomplishments and improvements made for women in the last two centuries in terms of their financial and professional standings in society.

• 2009: Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act)

The Credit CARD Act was passed to help protect borrowers from predatory and abusive lending practices “by reducing fees and ensuring that credit issuers would disclose the costs and penalties associated with charging”. This act was further amended in 2012 to include stay-at-home parents, which accounts for 24% of mothers in the US today, so that their ability to access credit was not kept from them just because they stayed home to care for the children.

• 1981: Kirchberg v Feenstra

While women could now have their own credit cards, be protected financially at work, and have their own bank accounts, they still didn’t have complete protection when it came to the property if it was shared with a man in their life. In this Supreme Court case, Joan Feenstra’s husband, Harold Feenstra, mortgaged their home without her knowledge. After the ruling, this case overturned the state law that allowed men to control and make decisions over property they co-owned with their wives without their consent.

• 1974: Equal Credit Opportunity Act While the first credit card was introduced in 1958

While the first credit card was introduced in 1958, women weren’t able to get credit cards in their own name until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. The introduction of this law came after 16 years of women arguing against the unfair gender-based lending practices that kept them from being able to hold financial freedom.

Until the legislation was passed, women could only get a credit card if a man co-signed for them, even if the man had no activity on the card and the woman made more than him. Today, U.S. women have more open credit card accounts, averaging 4.5 accounts, compared to U.S. men, with an average of 3.6 accounts.

• 1963: Equal Pay Act

This was added as an amendment to The Fair Labor Standards Act, and it made it to where all forms of compensation were now protected from inequality based on sex. Other forms of compensation can be salary, overtime, bonuses, life insurance, vacation and holiday pay, and benefits. This act was further expanded upon a year later to include protection from discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, political affiliation, and disability.

• 1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act

This legislation made it so businesses couldn’t pay people different wages based on gender. This is so important because before this was passed, wage inequality for women made it harder for them to be approved for credit cards because it inhibited their ability to be approved for a credit card based on their income.

• 1919: First Women’s Bank of Tennessee Opened

Many banks early on refused to provide women with bank accounts of their own, making financial independence of any sort extremely difficult for many women. In response to this struggle, the First Women’s Bank of Tennessee was opened in Clarksville, Tennessee. This bank was comprised of an all-female staff that catered solely to other women, and a total of $20,000 was deposited into the bank overall on its first day open, equivalent to $350,000 today. While the shareholders in this bank were men, it was a massive step in equal opportunities for women to control their own bank accounts and financial situations.

• 1862: California Banking Law

The California banking law made it much easier for women in California to open their own savings or checking accounts under their name, regardless of marital status. It recognized the full financial independence of women.

• 1862: Homestead Act

This act was passed within the same year as the California Banking Law, and it allowed women to be able to homestead as head of a household and have control over banking and property.

• 1848: The Married Women’s Property Act

Before this act was passed, women couldn’t form contracts, control their own income, transfer or sell property, or instigate a lawsuit. Her assets became her husband's property, and he could use them how he wished. When this act was passed, women could finally enter contracts, collect rent, and receive their inheritance. Women could finally control their own property and not have to be responsible for their husband’s financial situation instantly. This was a vital step towards women being able to gain every single other right and protection they have earned since.

Comprehensive Consulting Solutions for Small Businesses would like to take this time to acknowledge the strides women have taken in the professional and financial world in recent years to get to where they are today. The first women-owned business was owned by Eliza Lucas Pinckney in 1739. Today, women business owners own over 12 million businesses and employ over 10.1 million workers.

Despite only having a little over half of these rights for less than a century, women have made incredible leaps and bounds establishing themselves within the professional world and improving their financial independence.

Comprehensive Consulting Solutions is a proud Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We wanted to walk through what we as woman have accomplished and overcame over the last 100 years. Hopefully, this blog serves as a reminder to not forget what we achieved and what we have fought for.

Let's not go backwards.