Before we begin, a word to younger generations: Please extend grace to the women who came before you. Many older women didn’t stay in abusive relatio
Before we begin, a word to younger generations: Please extend grace to the women who came before you.
Many older women didn’t stay in abusive relationships because they were weak or unaware.
They stayed because the law, the banks, and the entire system gave them almost no options.
Before 1975, simply applying for a credit card or loan without a man’s signature could be denied—no matter how responsible or hardworking you were. Escape wasn’t just risky. It was often financially impossible.
🔒 Locked in with No Exit
Before the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed in 1974, which made it illegal to deny someone credit based on sex or marital status, women were routinely turned away from banks and lenders.
Even if a woman had a good job. Even if she was raising children. Even if she had left an abusive man.
The doors were closed.
No credit = no car, no apartment, no loan, no independence.
Many Survivors were forced to stay with abusive partners because they couldn’t rent a home, buy a used car, or access emergency funds. Others were financially blackmailed by husbands or boyfriends who knew that the law was on their side.
💼 Harassment Had an Economic Price Tag
In the workplace, women who faced sexual harassment or retaliation were often trapped in silence.
Why?
Because losing a job could mean losing everything. Without access to credit or savings, how could a woman support herself—or her children?
Predators knew this. Systems made it easy for them to abuse power without consequence.
👩🏾🦳 Even Widows Weren’t Safe
Imagine: Your husband dies. You’ve managed the home, paid the bills, maybe even worked a full-time job.
And still—you can’t get a loan.
Because the credit was in his name.
Many widows, single mothers, and divorced women found themselves starting from zero—or forced to return to harmful situations just to survive.
🔓 1975 Changed the Game—but Not the Fight
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act was a victory. But it didn’t erase the damage done. And it didn’t level the playing field overnight.
Credit discrimination continued—especially for Black women, Indigenous women, immigrant women, disabled women, and low-income women.
Even today, economic abuse is one of the most common tools used by abusers. Some open credit cards in a partner’s name. Others ruin a woman’s financial standing, so she can’t leave—even if she wants to.
🛠️ The Work Continues
Survivors need:
Financial literacy
Independent access to resources
Safe, affirming single sex spaces to rebuild credit
Laws that recognize economic abuse as a form of domestic violence
And to today’s advocates and freedom fighters: We ask for more than online critique. We ask for action.
Letters. Votes. Calls. Public pressure. That’s how the Equal Credit Opportunity Act came to be.
Things are better for women today because someone refused to stay silent.
Because women demanded safety, even when the cost was high.
Let’s remember this: Centering the comfort, excuses, and egos of adult males has never made women or children safer.
What will?
Truth. Boldness. And action.
It is our turn. It is YOUR turn to build better roads for the girls coming behind you.
Because the right to leave should never depend on someone else’s permission.
