Women’s Financial HerStory in the U.S.

As March comes to a close, we provide a final post in celebration of women in history. Do you know what significant events occurred during the years listed below?

Around the Globe: Presently women control 1/3 of the world’s wealth and are increasing their wealth at a rate of about $5 trillion a year.

https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/managing-next-decade-women-wealth

1963: President John Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law. This Act, over 18 years in the making, was designed to prohibit employers from paying women different wages or benefits than those they paid to men for jobs requiring the same skills and responsibilities. Many years of gender-based pay discrimination preceded the passage of the law. Even now, however, women earn about 82.3 cents for each dollar earned by a man.

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/01/gender-pay-gap-widens-as-women-age.html

1967: Muriel Siebert became the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She was turned down by 9 men before, finally, the 10th man she asked agreed to sponsor her application to purchase this seat. At the same time she joined the NYSE, the other 1365 seats were all owned by men.

1974: Congress enacted the Equal Credit Opportunity Act which prohibitrd discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, marital status, age, or national origin in any aspect of a credit transaction (e.g. applying for a mortgage, a loan, a credit card). Prior to the passage of this law, women in the U.S were not able to obtain a credit card, open a bank account, take out a loan or mortgage, or engage in a variety of other financial transactions without having a man come to the bank with her to co-sign the necessary paperwork.

1988: President Ronald Reagan signed the Women’s Business Ownership Act into law. Long overdue, this law sought to acknowledge and promote women entrepreneurs in the U.S by, among other things, finally eliminating all state laws that still precluded any woman from obtaining a business loan without the co-signature of a man.

2014: Janet Yellen became the first woman to serve as the Chair of the Federal Reserve.

2017: Adena Friedman became the first woman to serve as President and CEO of NASDAQ

Today in the U.S: Women earn 57% of bachelors degrees, hold about 6% of the CEO positions within the S&P 500 companies and occupy 32% of the C-suite roles at these companies.

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/financial-services/women-in-the-finance-industry.html