As recently as 1974, banks were legally allowed to deny women credit or charge them higher interest if they failed to get a male cosigner. But that year, on Oct. 28, President Gerald Ford signed into law the Fair Credit Opportunity Act, giving women the right to open a credit card in their own name.
The act came after women complained they were denied credit for reasons other than income or credit history, according to The New York Times account of the Senate passage. Married women were denied credit regardless of their income and single women were denied loans or were given smaller amounts than single men with identical financial backgrounds, the newspaper reported.
