50 years ago, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act gave women financial freedom

ATLANTA - Monday marks the 50th anniversary of women getting the right to get a credit card without a man's signature. It was 1974, and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act had been just signed by President Gerald Ford. That might seem like a long time ago, but ask your grandmother, even your mother, and she can tell you what it was like. 

What the Equal Credit Opportunity Act did was allow women to get credit cards or a mortgage without a co-signer. This was a huge turning point for women and financial independence. And frankly, an employer would often, in those days, just in the 70s, ask a woman's husband or father if he was OK if she worked. Employers could pay women less for just being a woman. 

Things have changed. Government data shows that women in the workforce in the 1950s were about 34 percent. Today, it's more like 57 percent.

Teacher GeorgeAna Wilson helps a student with her assignment at Lincoln Park High School in Brownsville, Texas, on Nov. 1, 2023. (Photo by VERONICA G. CARDENAS/AFP via Getty Images)

But there is still a salary disparity, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today, women make 84 percent of what their male counterparts earn. In 1979, that was 62 percent. This is what this looks like in a paycheck. In 2023, median weekly earnings for women older than 16 working full-time was $1,005, compared to a man's $1,202. A woman's more equal earning power is from ages 35 to 54, then it starts to slide.

Now, women reported in a survey to Nerd Wallet that they are very optimistic about their current jobs and their futures. Both men and women, more than 70 percent, think their finances will be OK over the next 12 months.