Ancient history shows that many women were accorded the same financial liberties as men. In Egypt, records dating back to 3100 BC show women were afforded the rights to own property, enter into contracts and in essence access all the same financial rights as their male counterparts.
In more modern times, women in the West have rarely been afforded these same privileges. In the United States, as recently as the 1970s, women were often denied lines of credit if they did not have a husband or other close male relative willing to act as a cosignatory. This law only changed in 1974, with the introduction of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. You can find out more about this Act in the embedded short video.
Since that time, women’s financial rights in most countries have increased significantly, and tools like the Bixie app, co-founded by Jeremy Cole, are being designed to empower women’s financial freedom around the world.
Banks for Women
As well as the introduction of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the 1970s was also the decade when the First Women’s Bank was established. While this was the most important banking institution to help foster financial rights for women, it was not the first of its kind. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, a small number of other banks had prioritised services catering exclusively to the needs of women.
More information about this institution can be seen in the PDF attachment.
Introducing First Women’s Bank
Women in Finance Careers
In the 1980s, women for the first time in modern history began to take senior positions in financial institutions. Rosemary McFadden made history in 1984 by becoming the first woman to lead a US trading exchange when she became president of NYMEX, or the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This was also the first decade when significant numbers of women began to make achievements in higher education, earning bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and even doctorates. Over the whole decade in the US, women earned more than half of all bachelor’s degrees awarded, along with approximately a third of doctorates and half of master’s degrees.
Between 2000 and 2010, more than two dozen women became CEOs of companies in the Fortune 500 list.
You can see a list of some of the most powerful women in banking as of 2021 in the infographic attachment to this post.