Happy Women’s History Month — Making Sense of it All

Are we sure it’s 2024?

As the banker/bill payer/financial know-it-all in my family, I try to carefully monitor all our bank/credit/institutional accounts. So, when our credit card company offered nearly $1,000 to open new savings and checking accounts, I was on it. We had been banking with a Chicago-based firm for the last fifteen years or so because of its connection to my husband’s then law firm. Now, two law firms later, it was time to move our accounts to a bank with Kansas City offices and this offer was pretty good.

In mid-January, I logged into our joint credit card account and opened said savings and checking accounts. Everything seemed to go smoothly, although I did think it odd that they sent only my husband’s debit card. No worries, I was sure mine was coming soon.

In mid-February, I hopped online to order checks (yes, for some antiquated businesses, checks are still needed). Hmmm, I couldn’t get it to work. The website kindly provided me with a number to call to order checks (another automated system), but that didn’t work either. Well, dang! I guess I will have to call and talk to a real person. That’s when I found out that the largest bank in the U.S. had erased me.

Much to my surprise, the lovely person I spoke with explained that my husband was the only one on the checking and savings account. And, “no” I couldn’t order checks or do anything else (mind you, my wonderful husband does not even know the login for this account).

Let’s let that sink in, shall we? This is March 2024. Happy Women’s History Month!

The only way to “fix” this was for my husband and I to go to a real-live branch in town and have them do it there. This is 2024, right? Just checking.

The clueless young man who helped us at the local branch, was blank-faced when I explained what happened. I even tried to “joke” about being erased, but he didn’t catch on. In fact, to make matters worse, our clueless banker opined that maybe this happened by “default.” As I said, clueless.

I have similar stories of this kind of thing happening, as I know ALL the women reading this do, but those happened back in the 1970-1980’s (and bad enough even then).[1]

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I am beginning to wonder if “they” do want us just barefoot and pregnant.[2]

On the brighter side, let us celebrate Maggie Lena Walker, civil rights activist, community leader, and a woman of “vision, courage, and determination.” Born on 15 July 1864, to enslaved parents in Virginia, her first business was a community insurance company for women. In 1903, she founded the St. Luke Savings Bank and became the first Black woman to charter a bank in the U.S. Her bank continued to thrive through the Great Depression and continues in operation today in Richmond, Virginia.[3] After she passed in 1934, her home was designated a Historic Site by the National Park Service.[4]

From Ms Walker: “The future of the race is in the hands of our women. I know that man is a very important consideration; man is great, but woman is greater. Man is greatness, but woman is greatness adorned, beautified and purified.”[5]

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[1] When I first moved to K.C. in 1982, I set up the accounts for our first apartment’s water, heat, electricity, etc. After we were married, I called one of them to change my last name on the account (from maiden to married). Next thing I know, I get my FINAL bill for that service and my husband gets his FIRST bill. The words I said.

[2] No, I don’t wonder this.

[3] Now known as the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. Boitumelo Masihleho, “Maggie Lena Walker’s St. Luke Penny Savings Bank,” Funtimesmagazine.com, 27 February 2024 (https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2024/02/27/482112/maggie-lena-walkers-st-luke-penny-savings-bank: accessed 4 March 2024).

[4] Norwood, Arlisha, "Maggie Walker," National Women's History Museum, 2017 (www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/maggie-walker : accessed 4 March 2024). Here’s the link to the National Park Service site and more on Maggie: https://www.nps.gov/mawa/index.htm.

[5] Maggie L. Walker, Nothing But Leaves, 1909 address to the Coronella Literary Club, Richmond, Virginia. “Memorable Quotes from Maggie L. Walker” National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/mawa/learn/historyculture/memorable-quotes-from-maggie-l-walker.htm : accessed 4 March 2024).