In 1920, women won the right to vote with the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 1929, English writer Virginia Woolf published her landmark essay, A Room of One’s Own, which addressed the many injustices women suffered at the time. But it wasn’t until 1974 that the U.S. Congress expanded the Fair Housing Act to outlaw discrimination against women in buying a home. Until then, banks could require women to have a male cosigner to get a mortgage.
Today, single women surpass single men in owning homes—11 million versus 8.3 million, per U.S. Census data. Even in this tough housing market, more women than men (20% versus 16%) seriously considered buying a home in the past year, a Fannie Mae consumer survey found. And years of research show women especially cherish the security of owning the roof over their families’ heads.
