A brief U.S. history of women in money and finance

The history of women and money is one of unequal standards and more recent developments than you might expect. I had several conversations with some friends of mine – female financial leaders who offer their insights into the history of this topic. With them, I want to share a brief history of how American women gained access to money and their role in finance over the last four decades.

As a man, I found so much of what I learned from my female money friends to be surprising. I believe if we know our history, it can provide clues as to potential biases that may still be alive today. With that awareness, I believe we can be a better advocate for progress and equality.

A quick history lesson

Let’s put together a timeline of American women’s access to money and financial rights over the past 40 years. I’d like to thank Stefanie O’Connell, Host of Real Simple’s Money Confidential Podcast for much of this info:

• Before 1968, employers commonly specified whether their job openings were exclusively available to men or women. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission struck down this practice. Before that, employers regularly barred most women from even applying to lucrative or high-responsibility job positions across many industries in the United States.
• Prior to 1969 (when the No-Fault Divorce law was passed) women needed to provide evidence that their husbands were responsible for the end of the marriage (due to adultery, cruelty, neglect, etc.) in order to be able to file for divorce and divide their assets. Before the No-Fault Divorce law passed, if a woman’s husband denied these claims or counterclaimed, the divorce would often and easily be overturned by the courts.
• Women didn’t even have access to bank accounts without their husbands’ signatures until 1974. Moreover, most lenders and banks required these same signatures for a woman to be issued a credit card.
• Up until 1978, women could legally be fired for (get this) being pregnant. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, introduced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, made it illegal to fire a woman because she was pregnant. This certainly changed the nature of a woman’s job security in the U.S.
• Prior to 1981, women didn’t have full or equal control over their home equity. Before this was changed by law, a woman’s husband could take out a second mortgage on property that he and his wife owned together, without her signature (or even her knowledge!)
• It wasn’t until 1988 that the Women’s Business Ownership Act allowed women free access to business loans. This act shot down state laws that required women to have a male relative sign off on her business loan. I recall my grandma (a small business owner) to be negatively impacted prior to this law.

The state of women, money, and finance today

According to the Pew Research Center, the financial contributions made by women today have grown considerably over the last few decades. 29% of marriages see both the wife and husband earning the same amount of money. 55% of marriages see the husband being the main or sole breadwinner in the household. 16% of marriages see women as the main or sole breadwinners.

While these statistics reflect great change in the way of financial contributions made by women of their own accord within their homes and marriages, public opinion is a bit behind in this regard.

The Pew Research Center also reports that about 48% of Americans say that men who are married to women would prefer that they make more money than their wives. Only 13% of Americans believe that husbands would prefer that he and his wife make the same amount of money. 25% report that they believe husbands have no preference in who earns more.

Expert opinions and insights from leading women in finance

In preparation for this dive into the history of women and money, I had some great discussions with friends of mine in the finance space.

I had a discussion with Miranda Marquit who has worked with nearly every major news outlet I know on the topic of consumer financial wellness. I asked her for her insights into the progress of women in money and finance.

She pointed out some pretty fascinating differences between men and women. She also shared a similar opinion to the statistical findings of the Pew Research Center’s report; there’s still this overarching social idea that husbands prefer to make more money and be in charge of the finances within a relationship. She shares that, despite the forward progress, the public mindset around finances is still behind.

She also found, in her line of work, that many husbands she’s observed take out credit cards and investment accounts in their own names. Their wives tend to be authorized users in such cases, but don’t themselves have their own credit cards or make their own investment decisions.

Miranda also shares that she’s observed that women/wives tend to make the household consumer decisions within their marriages. From groceries, home planning, and purchases for children to vacation planning, women are generally in charge of researching and making these sorts of financial decisions.

She also found that husbands often still take charge of the big-picture financial decisions and goal-planning. Miranda believes that given the legal implications, women should be more involved in making important financial decisions within a marriage.

Overall, I asked Miranda for tips on how women in any sort of circumstance can better empower themselves financially in today’s socioeconomic environment. She explained that women historically are more likely to be financially disadvantaged in the event of divorce, so it’s important for them to have assets in their own name.

Have money set aside in your own name – not necessarily to plan for a divorce, but rather to be individually empowered, regardless of your marital status. Moreover, do sign prenuptial agreements, have equilateral standing in big-picture decisions, and ditch any financial advisor who doesn’t address you and your partner equally during financial planning meetings.

Miranda and I ended our discussion by agreeing that there is much to be proud of in the way of progression decades past. First time marriages are statistically much more stable today and are far less likely to end in divorce than we’ve seen in previous decades.

Couples now discuss financial outlooks, values, and mindsets more openly and frequently than ever. American society has made significant progress in the last 40 years. Regardless of whether there’s more work to be done socially, we’ve made a lot of phenomenal changes in a very short period of time.

Finally, I spoke with Yulin Lee, a Money Empowerment Coach and the author of Unleashed: Tapping Into Your Feminine Instinct to Create Financial Independence.

Yulin shared more valuable insights and thoughts for women regarding money and financial wellness. Yulin believes that there are significant risks for women who rely solely on their husbands for financial management. These risks include divorce and outliving one’s partner.

Yulin emphasized the importance of learning about finances at an early stage in life; it’s never too late to learn, but if you’re not money-savvy, it’s a good idea to do your research to become financially empowered and independent.

Working on your finances, as a single or married woman, is crucial. Yulin also talked about how important it is to be financially aware and independent, whether you’re married or single – and viewing that awareness as an expression of self-love and self-respect.

Modeling these financial skills to your children, male or female, is also an often overlooked but extremely crucial angle to consider. Raising your children, regardless of gender, to be financially savvy and responsible will always be impacted by what they see within your own marital relationship.

If you reinforce the idea that a woman doesn’t need to be involved with making financial decisions, a child will walk away feeling like they need to identify with those same ideologies one way or the other. If you were raised with a less than egalitarian view on who should handle the money and financial decisions in a relationship, it’s important to work against that programming to positively empower our daughters and sons.

Yulin also stressed talking about money with your children early on. Boys and girls will benefit from mental exercises relating to budgeting and making financial decisions. Create awareness around these topics from an early age to take away the anxiety around money and to instill a sense of normalcy around financial empowerment, efficacy, and independence, regardless of gender.

One of the main points Yulin and I talked about is the inherent financial risk of siloing financial awareness and responsibility in a relationship. No matter who makes what money, if something (goodness forbid) should happen to one of you, there is a moral responsibility on both ends of a marriage to ensure that the other person is financially empowered to carry on the household, should they need to. Work to empower one another in your marriage, especially when it comes to the financial wellness of your family together. As a fellow consumer advocate, I cannot agree more. Please ensure that both you and your spouse can each do all the things financially.

Yulin also shares this nugget; it’s not about assigning responsibilities based on “who is better” at something in a relationship. It’s about coming together and working as a seamless team, a unit, to accomplish the common goals that you set together.

One final thought before wrapping up… Miranda and Yulin each noted that the way we view the history of women in finance is greatly overshadowed for populations with other historical disadvantages.

The biases of rules or norms around money within a marriage can also be further compounded for new immigrants to our country, folks in same-sex relationships, low-income marriages, or women of color – not to mention the rights of single women, historically. Sadly, Americans in any of these identities or dynamics have incurred even greater systemic biases which may still exist today in some ways.

Final thoughts

Remember that empowering yourself is just as important as recognizing the progress made in empowering all women. Regardless if you are a man like me, or woman, if you believe that the rules and ideas around money should be equal in all respects, we can only change the social mindset around these issues if we learn our history and perhaps examine our own ideas. Advocacy then becomes so much more natural.

If you’re not sure where to start, but want to begin educating yourself more about this topic, I highly encourage you to do your own research into the history of these issues. Take that research one step at a time, but also one step further by reaching out to leading experts on this topic, like the women I was honored to speak to for this piece.

Josh Elledge is a syndicated newspaper columnist with over 12 years of experience covering consumer advocacy. His work spotlights money-saving skills, strategic shopping and financial life hacks.