The Financial Freedom We Inherited
A woman’s financial independence is much younger than America.
As our country celebrates its 250th 🇺🇸 birthday, I have been thinking about the women who helped move us closer to real financial freedom.
I have also been reading We the Women by Norah O’Donnell, a book about the women who shaped America, including many whose names were left out of the stories most of us learned.
It made me wonder what a personal finance version of that story would look like.
Before women could build wealth, they had to be able to own and control property. Women like Ernestine Rose pushed for married women to have stronger legal rights over what belonged to them.
Before women could turn savings into community power, someone had to open the doors of banking. Maggie Lena Walker founded a bank in 1903 and used it to help families and business owners build economic stability.
Before women could count on a basic floor of retirement security, Frances Perkins helped shape Social Security and many of the workplace protections we now take for granted.
Before equal pay became law, women like Esther Peterson pushed the country to recognize that women deserved equal pay for equal work.
Before women could reliably access credit in their own names, women like Lindy Boggs helped make sure the Equal Credit Opportunity Act protected women from discrimination based on sex or marital status.
Before women were fully welcomed in the investing world, Muriel Siebert became the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
None of these women solved everything.
But each one helped move the line.
And sometimes history feels far away until you put dates next to it.
A Short Timeline of Women’s Financial Leaps
1848: New York passes the Married Women’s Property Act, giving married women stronger legal rights to own and control property.
1903: Maggie Lena Walker founds St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, using banking as a tool for economic empowerment.
1920: The 19th Amendment is ratified, granting women the constitutional right to vote.
1935: The Social Security Act is signed into law, with Frances Perkins playing a central role in its creation.
1963: The Equal Pay Act prohibits sex based wage discrimination for substantially equal work.
1974: The Equal Credit Opportunity Act makes it illegal for creditors to discriminate based on sex or marital status.
1988: The Women’s Business Ownership Act helps address discriminatory lending practices and expands support for women entrepreneurs.
🪙For more women worth knowing, revisit my earlier piece on the American Women Quarters Program, The Women That Make Cents.
The financial independence many of us rely on today is not ancient history. It is recent history.
That matters because the financial choices women make today are not small. Opening an investment account. Negotiating compensation. Starting a business. Buying a home. Leaving a marriage. Rebuilding after loss. Planning for retirement. Asking better questions. These are not just money moves. They are independence moves. So this July, as America turns 250, I am thinking about the women who made it possible for more of us to have a bank account, a paycheck, a business, a mortgage, an investment portfolio, a retirement plan, and a voice in our own financial future.
The best way to honor that legacy is not only to remember it. It is to use it. If there is a financial leap you have been avoiding, maybe this is your nudge to take the next step. Ask the question. Open the statement. Run the numbers. Make the decision. Get the guidance. And if this made you think of a woman who is ready for her next financial leap, send it to her.
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