90 Days to Financial Stability

In 1922, the UK allows equal inheritance. In the US, Rebecca Felton of Georgia, became the first female Senator. She was 87-years-old, a suffragette and activist. Felton only served one day and in that day she called out southern men for an excess of chivalry but a lack of respect for women’s rights. She wrote, “honeyed phrases are pleasant to listen to, but the sensible women of our country would prefer more substantial gifts.” Two years later, Wyoming’s Nellie Tayloe Ross became the US’s first female governor. In 1938, also in the US, the Fair Labor Standards Act wiped out the wage disparity between men and women’s hourly wages with the federal minimum wage. In the UK in 1956, civil service reform gives government workers – both men and women – the right to equal pay. In India in 1961, there was a law passed that banned dowries for women before marriage and allows women to sue if her husband’s family harasses her for money. Sadly, the anti-dowry law goes wide...

The UK passed the Married Woman’s Property Act and two years later, in Illinois, the freedom of occupational choice was granted to both men and women. Yet, when Myra Colby Bradwell – who studied as her husband’s law apprentice – tried to pass the Illinois bar to practice as a lawyer, the US Supreme Court ruled in 1873 that the Illinois bar didn’t have to grant a license to a married woman. Mary Gage opened a stock exchange for women who wanted to use their own money to speculate on railway stocks. Meanwhile, the Witch of Wall Street – Hetty Green – was consolidating her own fortune. (In a later entry I want to write about Ms. Green) If you were looking at France in 1881, you would see that women are the right to own bank accounts, married women received this right five years later. The US didn’t grant the same rights until the 1960s and the UK, not until 1975. In 1908, Oregon restricted workday hours for females to ten hours – because of course, women were too fragil...

We are continuing our look at women and money over the centuries. Last week, we ended with the 1100s in England. Today, we go across the water to the Americas in 1718. In Pennsylvania, women could own and manage property. But only if their husbands were unable to do so. In 1753, in Russia, there was something called ‘separate economy’. This meant that Russian women could earn their own income and keep it for themselves. The husbands couldn’t demand their wives hand over the money. Just over a decade later, Catherine the Great founded the first state-financed learning institution for women called the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg. We return to the States in 1771. New York established that husbands needed their wives’ consent if he tried to sell property she had brought into the marriage. A judge would meet privately with the wife to ensure she wasn’t coerced and the signature in question was hers. France in 1791. Revolutionary France gives women equal inhe...

If you look back to Tuesday February 13, 2018, you will see that I am discussing the history of women and money. Today, we continue. Next, we move into ancient Rome. The Romans were more liberal than the Greeks were. This culture allowed women divorce, hold property and inherit. Divorces were easy to get and men had the legal right to retain custody of children. In 565 AD, the Byzantine empire, Justinian laws allowed women to be married without a dowry though there were pre-nuptial gifts which, if a woman cheated on her husband, the man was allowed to divorce her and keep the gifts. He was also entitled to keep the dowry, if there was one, and a third of any property she possessed! Some working women, such as prostitutes and tavern-owners, did not have the right to marry Roman citizens and Roman men could only keep them as concubines. Emperor Justinian’s wife, Empress Theodora – a former actress and wool spinner – left her jobs when the Emperor started to court her. ...

Women are not good with money?  Did you grow up hearing that? I did. At one time, women did not have bank accounts, handle cheques or any of that sort of stuff. Today, I am consulting an article in The Guardian that looks at women’s financial rights from Cleopatra’s time to present. I am also going to do more research so I can relate Canada’s role in this. We are going to start by looking at life in ancient Egypt, 3100 BCE and after. Back then, women had the same financial rights as men. They were able to hold and dispose of property in their name. They could enter into contracts, sue and be sued, serve on juries, be trial witness and witness legal documents. Next, we will look at the biblical era, 1800 BC and after. Consulting Jewish law then, a woman had the right to own her own property and sue in court without a man representing her. However, she could not directly inherit from her husband - unless it was a gift and there were no children – and daughters c...

Jill is a divorced woman in her forties. She lives from paycheck to paycheck, trying to make ends meet. There are months she isn’t sure that she’s going to have enough money to meet her obligations and then Jill has to scramble, taking money from one bill to help pay another. She makes a decent income but doesn’t know why she is always broke.   She knows she has to do something so she decides to start a budget.   She makes a list of her income and all her expenses and sticks with the plan. For a little while. Soon though, Jill finds herself slipping back into her old habits and struggling to pay everything. Jill is convinced that she can’t stick to a budget and budgets don’t work. Does that sound familiar? Have you ever gone through something similar? Have you started a budget only to fall off it within months? You aren’t alone, many people do this. There are many reasons this happens. 1.        The budget is too ...

Have you ever heard someone say it is easy to stay out of debt – just spend less than you earn. How does that make you feel? When I hear someone say that, it pisses me off!  First, it sounds arrogant and condescending and secondly, it insinuates that people with large amounts of debt are stupid. Those who have debt, realize that they wouldn’t have any debt if they spent less than they earned.  Well, guess what? Those in debt already know that and telling them to do that does not help the present situation. If you can’t give helpful advice then don’t say anything. There are so many reasons people end up in debt. A health issue is a big one even for those who live in Canada where there is publicly funded health care.  Having a stroke, heart attack or a chronic illness comes with extra costs. What do you if the government or health care plans won’t pay for these extra costs?  You find the money somehow.  The same goes for dental issues. Going to the ...