A closer look
Financial institutions in the United States legally possessed the right to flatly refuse to issue a credit card to a single or married woman without the explicit written signature of her husband or father until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed in 1974. Prior to this supposedly groundbreaking legislation, major banks universally treated adult women as irresponsible financial toddlers who simply could not be trusted to manage a line of revolving debt. This systemic economic exclusion severely crippled female entrepreneurship and financial independence for generations, forcing millions to remain trapped in terrible marriages purely for the sake of economic survival. Now, of course, the financial industry embraces true equality by happily handing out massive high-interest credit lines to absolutely anyone with a pulse, ensuring that all genders can experience the paralyzing, panic-inducing dread of insurmountable compounding consumer debt equally
