Opinion: Women’s History Month Offers a Chance to Talk About Women, Credit, and Financial Wellness

Do you remember the first time you got a credit card? I don’t. 

It wasn’t remarkable or memorable in any way. That’s a red flag as to how much we take for granted when it comes to women and something as simple as being able to open a credit card and having our own individual credit reports.

I only just learned that as recently as about 50 years ago women could not have credit in their own name. It was just 1974 that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed. Before then a woman needed a male co-signer to do things I take for granted like getting my own credit card, or applying for a mortgage. 

Lenders could also require women with the same credit profile as a man to put down a larger down payment when it came to loans like mortgages. The ECOA also makes it possible for women to take out a loan to start a business or buy a car. No wonder so many women felt pressured to marry earlier!

Access to credit opened the door to financial security and independence for countless women who were finally able to take charge of their own financial lives. It sounds so simple but it’s empowering to have your own name on a credit card that was issued to you because a financial institution believes you are a good credit risk. 

Women who want to start a business continue to have a tough time getting equal financing to men. Women-founded startups received less than 2% of venture capital investing activity and only 6.4% of deals in 2024, according to Pitchbook, a capital market company. 

One factor at play is that the decision-makers tend to be male. Advocacy group All Raise reports that 62% percent of venture capital firms have no female partners. The group is working to double the percentage of women decision-makers in venture capital firms from 9% to 18% by 2028. 

The irony is that women-led businesses tend to outperform their male counterparts over time. A study by Boston Consulting Group titled “Why Women Startups are a Better Bet” details how startups founded by women delivered more than twice as much revenue per dollar invested than male startups. 

And yet the money from venture capitalists just isn’t being delivered to women. 

Women ask for less than men and get less in return. Author Carrie Kerpen shares in her book “The Whisper Way” that on average, female small business owners ask for $35,000 less in funding than their male counterparts. About 40% of women-led businesses that attempt to secure loans or lines of credit don’t receive funding.

What that means is that women have to look to other avenues to fund their startup businesses. Their options include personal savings, taking out loans, and yes, putting startup costs on personal credit cards. 

While credit cards are far from ideal because of their high interest rates, they don’t discriminate on the basis of gender. That may be why a whopping 61% use a personal credit card to fund their businesses, according to Hello Alice. 

Since the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974, women have proven that they are equal to men when it comes to their ability to manage credit.

While women carry more credit cards, they have less debt than men, according to a study by Experian. In fact, the study showed that when adding up all the various kinds of debt, including credit cards, auto loans, personal loans, HELOC’s, mortgages, etc, men have almost 22% more debt than women. 

Here’s where it gets interesting — and frustrating. Men tend to take on debt for things like luxury items.

Women are more likely to take on debt to make ends meet. That shines a light on the ugly elephant in the room: equal pay and the fact that women are still playing catch-up even as they live longer and face higher costs along the way. 

Women still earn only about 84 cents for every dollar that a man makes. According to the Financial Health Network, women are more likely to struggle in areas of their financial lives than men. They report worse outcomes when it comes to spending, saving, borrowing and planning.  That is a problem no credit card is going to solve.