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No Celebrating YET
I want to start this article remembering
what it was like for women 50 years ago. Not just here in the US but worldwide.
The pic above is me 50 years ago!
We could not get a credit card in our own name. Nor could we get a checking account in our own name. I know personally about this. After I divorced my first husband I went to the bank and asked to open my own checking account.
They told me either my Dad or my Husband would need to co-sign for me.
I was appalled and needless to say enraged! I had a professional job making good money. I paid my own rent and had a lot of money in savings. It made no sense.
I didn't even ask for a credit card. I knew that was not going to happen because friends had told me they were refused.
Only 50 years ago we did not have financial freedoms. Like many countries today, we could not get these financial products without a man!
I remembered the bank that came to my school every week when I was in Elementary school. They gave us all passbooks for savings accounts and encouraged us to learn about savings by putting our pennies in the bank every week. My mom still had that passbook.
At 28 I took the passbook to that bank
in downtown Trenton (no branch banking
either). I showed them my history with their bank and asked them to let me open a checking & savings account in my name only. They were impressed and gave it to me but with a caveat: I had to have enough money in the savings account to cover all checks I wrote in the checking account. That's how I got my own checking account before 1974.
By the way the change in law that happened in 1974 was championed by a young woman lawyer; Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Now over 50 years later we again nominate a woman to be President of the US. Many of you come from countries that already had Women leading.
She is an extroadinary woman with incredible credentials. She is also Black and Indian.
Having watched the mysoginy that engulfed the Hilary Clinton campaign I am not so quick to celebrate her nomination.
I am going to work hard to get her elected! But until she is sworn in I won't celebrate, I will work!
That is the message of this article, if we want to make our societies and governments representative of all genders we need to WORK HARD! Not just hope and pray! So take a look at what you can do to catapult women ahead. Even one woman promoted by you is a huge win.
So we have 2 1/2 months of hard work ahead of us in the US. We plan to do postcards and phone bank and knock on doors. What will you do?
Let me know........
Susan
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