The 50th Anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act Reminds Us There’s Still Work to Do for Women

I have vivid memories of the day my mother rushed into our home in Valley Forge, Pa., to show me her new credit card.

It was 1974. I was just a little girl, but I’d seen one before. What made this card special was that it was printed with her name: Reva Robinson. Before that, it was always my father’s name embossed in the plastic.

Until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) was signed into law 50 years ago today, banks required women to have a male cosigner—typically a husband or father—on applications for credit cards, loans, and mortgages. It was an archaic policy in an archaic system that was designed to fail women—and for women to fail.

Because if a woman couldn’t get a credit card, she couldn’t build credit. Without established credit, she couldn’t secure a loan, invest in her education, buy a home, or build assets and wealth. If she wanted to start a business, these were all obstacles she had to overcome.

Overnight, the ECOA changed the trajectory of American women’s lives. The law not only allowed women to apply for credit in their own names, it also made it illegal to deny someone credit because she was a woman, married, or pregnant. And it banned the practice of denying credit based on the assumption that a woman might get pregnant and leave the workforce. In short, this law transformed a credit card from being a permission slip from a man who controlled your finances to a symbol of financial freedom.

I’d say it was about time. This was roughly 15 years after credit cards became commonplace in the U.S., 11 years after the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and five years after Apollo 11. Women literally helped put a man on the moon before they could get their own credit cards.

Societies often discriminate against women in the name of protecting them. Back then, women were told they didn’t need to worry about technical subjects like finance—or, worse, that it was over their heads. The results were corrosive. How many women doubted their worth, their potential, even their basic understanding of money? How many women didn’t dare to dream or even acknowledge an ambition, because they couldn’t imagine a path forward? As my friend Billie Jean King has said, “You have to see it to be it.”

I often think about the effects of constantly seeing someone else’s name where yours should be—the small, daily reminder that your life, your decisions, your destiny are being dictated by someone else. I’m fortunate that, from a young age, my mother said to me: “Tory, you have to be financially independent.” She taught me how important it was to take care of myself, and to never, ever depend on anyone. It was a lesson she learned from her own mother, a barrier-breaking violinist and orchestra leader in the 1930s.

Launching my business 20 years ago was a way for me to chase my dreams and secure my future. And part of that dream was to start a foundation so I could help other women follow theirs. There has been so much progress we can and should celebrate. In the past five years alone, women have started businesses at record rates—nearly twice the rate at which men have. And women entrepreneurs have been uniquely resilient in the face of tough economic conditions, from the pandemic to inflation to high interest rates.

But this journey is far from over. Women, especially women of color, are still held back by outdated policies, laws, and cultural norms. In many cases, our most basic freedoms—including control over our own bodies—are being stripped away. Women still have less access than men to the education, networks, and communities they need to succeed, and they continue to face biases and stereotypes in the workplace. And despite our proven success, women founders still receive just 2% of venture capital funding.

These gaps in access and equality don’t just hold women back, they hold everyone back. Because when women succeed, they transform families, communities, and culture. They strengthen the economy. When we don’t allow women—half the population—to reach their full potential, no one succeeds.

It is an understatement to say we have a lot of work to do, and we all have a role to play.

First, the private sector needs to support women entrepreneurs, plain and simple. Investors should hold themselves accountable by building portfolios that represent the true diversity of American founders. That starts with examining their unconscious biases around gender, race, and age. We know VCs ask very different questions of men and women entrepreneurs, often focusing on potential gains for men and potential losses for women. The underlying assumption is that women are more likely to fail.

I don’t personally know a single male investor who wants this inequality to persist. They care deeply about this issue, and we need them to be a part of the conversation and the solution.

But business cannot create profound, systemic change on its own. As individuals, we each have the right—and the power—to advocate for women’s freedoms, support corporations that invest in women’s entrepreneurship, and vote for leaders who will enact policies that advance gender equity. Not just because they’re good for women, but because they are good for us all.

This means voting for leaders who will protect investments in small business tax credits, expand government contracts awarded to women-owned businesses, and support a workforce that reflects the many different backgrounds and strengths of the American people. It means voting for leaders who will finally address the childcare crisis, because we will never have equity in the workplace if we don’t have equity at home. And it means voting for leaders who will always support women’s fundamental rights to make decisions about their own lives.

As polarized as our politics are, there is no reason why people on both sides of the aisle—at the local, state, and federal level—can’t come together on behalf of entrepreneurs of all backgrounds, not least because small businesses are the backbone of our economy.

I think a lot about how my mother must have felt that day she came home with her credit card, a beacon of opportunity that her daughter would realize years later. I think about the careers she could have had, the goals she could have fearlessly pursued. I am forever grateful to her, to my grandmother, and to every woman who fought so that we could live out our dreams.

For me, that’s what the anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act is really about. The best way to honor the generations of women who paved the way is to continue the hard work of making sure everyone, regardless of their gender, has the opportunity to accomplish whatever they set their mind to. That is true freedom.

Tory Burch is the Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Tory Burch, and the founder of the Tory Burch Foundation. She is a Founding Advisory Council Member of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum and a member of the 2024 TIME100.

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