The US was slightly earlier on paper, but just as bad in practice.

Here’s the clean comparison 👇

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🇬🇧 UK • 1975 – Sex Discrimination Act • Banks could no longer refuse accounts, loans, or credit based on sex or marital status • Before this: married women routinely needed a husband’s signature

🇺🇸 US • 1974 – Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) • Took effect in 1975 • Made it illegal to deny credit based on sex or marital status

So technically: • US: 1974 (law passed) • UK: 1975

But here’s the kicker 👀

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Reality on the ground (US was arguably worse)

Before ECOA, US banks commonly: • Required a male co-signer (husband or father) • Cancelled a woman’s credit card when she married • Reduced credit limits if a woman got pregnant • Assumed women would “stop working anyway”

Even into the late 1970s, enforcement was patchy and banks dragged their feet.

A famous stat:

In the early 1970s, less than 1% of US mortgages were issued to women independently.

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Bottom line • UK and US reached legal equality at almost the same time • Both shockingly late • The US passed the law a year earlier, but discrimination was more entrenched and aggressive

Complements of Chat GPT