You are not alone

It all started in March 1976, when educators in Santa Rosa, California, first celebrated Women’s History Week, as an effort to increase awareness of women’s contributions to society.

In 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 8 National Women’s History Week.

"...too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength, and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well." President Jimmy Carter

In 1987, Congress formally designated March as Women’s History Month.

We have come a long way.

On voting rights

On December 10, 1869, the Wyoming territorial legislature granted women the right to vote and to hold public office. The law was passed with almost no discussion or controversy. But this was only the beginning.

While Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote in 1869, it was not until when the 19th Amendment became law on August 26, 1920 that white women were granted the ability to vote nationwide. And full electoral equality was still decades away for many women of color who counted among that number.

For example, Native Americans weren’t allowed to be United States citizens, so the federal amendment did not give them the right to vote.

Asian American immigrant women were excluded from voting until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which allowed them to gain citizenship, and therefore the right to vote — more than three decades after the 19th Amendment was passed. And African American women continued to face obstacles to vote for many years following the 19th Amendment.

On equal opportunities

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act, prohibiting sex-based wage discrimination between men and women performing the same job in the same workplace. And the following year, on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Civil Rights Act into law, banning employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin or sex.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 gave every American woman, married or not, the right to open her own bank or credit account. It outlawed discrimination by both sex and race in banking.

Unfortunately, challenges still exist almost 50 years later. Much to do, we still have.

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This week on One Vision ...

Change is not an abstraction. We have the tech at our disposal; what we do need is to make a choice. Do we have the intention to change and do what is needed? And are we doing enough?

In this episode of One Vision, I chat with Leda Glyptis PhD , Chief Client Officer at 10x Banking , and author of “Bankers Like Us”, on culture and transformation. Much like Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring, you are not alone.

As Gandalf the Grey said in the Fellowship of the Ring: “All We Have To Decide Is What To Do With The Time That Is Given To Us.” The book is a call to action: The ball is now in your court. 

Give this episode a listen and let us know what you think.

While the missing pearls for women in banking may serve as a visual representation on how far we have come, the lone voices from underrepresented communities in our industry conferences remind us of how much further we still have to go.

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Recently, I joined Francesca Aliverti and Greg Palmer on Breaking Banks Europe for an exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming Finovate Europe.

Look forward to catching up with everyone in London March 14-15!

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Thank you!

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