The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (the ECOA) was signed into law 50 years ago this week. Until the passage of that law, women could not get credit cards, home loans, auto loans, or any kind of credit without having a male co-signer. That may sound other worldly, but it is correct.
I was amazed when I discovered this in 1980 as counsel to a huge home relocation/credit client. How could it be possible that as recently as 1974, only five years before I was sworn into the bar, women were in such subservient positions in the credit world? It was such a shock to me that I decided to write a paper on it, which I presented to a joint conference of the District of Columbia Women’s Bar Association and Georgetown Law School. That paper also served as the foundation for my article, “Credit Opportunities for Women: The ECOA and Its Effects,” published in the Wisconsin Law Review in 1981.
I still recall the audible gasps in the audience when I delivered the paper at Georgetown Law School. The thought that less than a decade earlier none of the conference attendees could get credit on their own was simply unthinkable. Instead women had to tote a husband or a father to the credit appointment to vouch and co-sign for them.
And I also remember my own shock when I spoke at another conference many years later to hear the woman next to me say, “And my brother sponsored that legislation.” When I read her name tag, it all came full circle. Her middle name was Biden — the sister of President Joe Biden. Indeed, Valerie Biden’s big brother had ushered in a law that gave women greater opportunities to plan and control their own futures.
So, this week I am feeling very good about the credit cards in my own name and my car loan. I am grateful to Joe Biden and his colleagues in Congress for what they did to free me from that particular form of bondage.
You also should be grateful. Now go out and charge something on that precious credit card of yours. Feel the power when you sign for it. Not so long ago it was only a dream.
For more information about the ECOA, see this article.
