In my WIP I have a female character who is a small business owner. She claims to be married to make dealing with the bank easier for her payroll, etc. How did single women handle their day-to-day financial business? For example, if there was an unmarried school teacher or nurse in 1960, how was she paid if she couldn't have a bank account in her own name? It seems unlikely that everything was a cash transaction, and that she never needed to write a check. Was she dependent on her father or other male figure to do her banking? I fully understand how ghastly and unfair this situation was for women, but want to be historically accurate. Thank you.
Banking for single women in early 1960's America
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I'm afraid my only data point was Mom telling me my father had to co-sign for a loan for her.
What I suspect is that a woman would need a male relative to open an account, co-sign on loans, and "big" things. I suspect once a woman, single or married, had that account, they could write checks for the day-to-day shopping. I can't imagine many husbands of that era would want to go with the wife to buy the weekly groceries. I have trouble imagining a bank refusing to accept a deposit for an account just because it was a woman who showed up at the bank.
I'm curious to know how well my educated guess lines up with those familiar with the economic history of that time.
What I suspect is that a woman would need a male relative to open an account, co-sign on loans, and "big" things. I suspect once a woman, single or married, had that account, they could write checks for the day-to-day shopping. I can't imagine many husbands of that era would want to go with the wife to buy the weekly groceries. I have trouble imagining a bank refusing to accept a deposit for an account just because it was a woman who showed up at the bank.
I'm curious to know how well my educated guess lines up with those familiar with the economic history of that time.
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I’m so terribly old… by the mid 1960s US women had their own bank accounts under their own names, no problem. I had an account in 1965. I would not be a bit surprised if this didn’t date from the mid to late 1950s.
Googling it always comes up with the caveat that “married” women couldn’t open accounts. My mother was single till she was 30 (1951). She moved from New York State to Boston to go to art school. She stayed in Boston and worked as a freelance illustrator for department stores, both in New York and Massachusetts. I don’t know if she needed her father’s signature to have a bank account, but she must have had one. I do remember her being able to get a credit card in her own name in the 1970s (or charge cards at specific stores). No doubt I have better info in the many boxes of hers in my basement!
This site, Myth Busting Women’s Banking for Women’s History Month, is interesting with lots of info to further pursue, though it skips from the 1860s to the 1960s. Surely single women were able to support themselves in the meantime.
A commenter mentions many sources for women banking long before the 1960s, including an ad in a Boston Symphony Orchestra program for Old Colony Trust touting its accounts for women. From 1908. So there you go.
I read a really interesting book earlier this year, The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers, about a Black woman who ran her own business. She had to have a white man “buy” real estate for her, since she couldn’t get a loan otherwise. It was how Blacks got around the racism of the time, the 1950s, I believe.
This site, Myth Busting Women’s Banking for Women’s History Month, is interesting with lots of info to further pursue, though it skips from the 1860s to the 1960s. Surely single women were able to support themselves in the meantime.
A commenter mentions many sources for women banking long before the 1960s, including an ad in a Boston Symphony Orchestra program for Old Colony Trust touting its accounts for women. From 1908. So there you go.
I read a really interesting book earlier this year, The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers, about a Black woman who ran her own business. She had to have a white man “buy” real estate for her, since she couldn’t get a loan otherwise. It was how Blacks got around the racism of the time, the 1950s, I believe.
No real info, but I suspect that it would be easier for a single woman to get a bank account than a married one.
A single woman, especially with a job, is pretty much on her own with her money, and in need of 'protection'. Which the bank will provide, for a fee.
A married woman seeking her own account is going to make people wonder why. Is she saving up money to leave him? Stealing from the grocery money? Got a boyfriend on the side?
If the account is legit, why wouldn't her husband get it is his name, or at least co-sign?
A single woman, especially with a job, is pretty much on her own with her money, and in need of 'protection'. Which the bank will provide, for a fee.
A married woman seeking her own account is going to make people wonder why. Is she saving up money to leave him? Stealing from the grocery money? Got a boyfriend on the side?
If the account is legit, why wouldn't her husband get it is his name, or at least co-sign?
You need to decide what state you're looking at. In some states, single women could own property, in other states married women could hold property in their own name, and in other states, they couldn't. A look in a city directory of the appropriate year will give you some idea of how many businesses were owned and run by women. A fair number of women who owned businesses took over the business upon the death of husbands, as well as single women who ran what could be called "typical" female business such as laundries, boarding houses, and restaurants.
In addition, in 1960 a lot of business was done with cash. Payroll in many companies was paid in cash, rather than checks, depending upon location. A hold over from the bank crashes during the Great Depression and earlier, some people didn't trust banks and credit. They wanted cold, hard cash and not flimsy pieces of paper (checks).
Jim Clark-Dawe
In addition, in 1960 a lot of business was done with cash. Payroll in many companies was paid in cash, rather than checks, depending upon location. A hold over from the bank crashes during the Great Depression and earlier, some people didn't trust banks and credit. They wanted cold, hard cash and not flimsy pieces of paper (checks).
Jim Clark-Dawe
I had jobs in the 60s as a teenager. I got paychecks. No one had to cosign for my bank account that I recall. Though my memory isn't reliable for something like that. I even got an SSN by walking in an office and signing up for it, no ID required. That I do remember.
This was in California.
After 9/11 they set up some strict federal banking laws about proving who you were and whatnot. I had to go to the bank with my teenage son in order for him to open an account and he had to have an SSN which required more steps to get than I had to do in the 60s. He had to have his birth certificate.
This was in California.
After 9/11 they set up some strict federal banking laws about proving who you were and whatnot. I had to go to the bank with my teenage son in order for him to open an account and he had to have an SSN which required more steps to get than I had to do in the 60s. He had to have his birth certificate.