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...

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...