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S40E3: Bella! This Woman's Place Is in the House | Clip

How Bella Abzug elevated feminist causes while in office

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While in Congress, Bella Abzug elevated feminist causes, including women’s financial independence. She helped pass the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which allowed women to have their own credit.

TRANSCRIPT

- Mrs.

Schlafly can have the chivalry.

(audience laughs) We'll take the equal pay and the equal opportunity.

(audience applauds) - She herself often said that she didn't really come into her feminism, didn't really get it fully until she was in office.

And then women began writing to her because she was clearly a fighter and assumed she was a fighter on this as well.

And the more she thought about it, the more she was.

- I remember talking to her about how I had to get my husband's signature for a credit card that I wanted at Bloomingdale.

I had to get my husband's signature.

Yeah, I had a job.

I was vice president of a publishing company.

- I got married in 1975, and I was actually making more money than my husband practicing law.

He was the Attorney General of Arkansas.

I could not get a credit card in my own name.

- If you went to the bank to get a loan, you had to supply a baby letter saying that you were never gonna have a baby during the period of the loan.

In many cases, you had to have your husband's permission to start a business, and he did not have to have his wife's permission to do the same.

- When my husband died, all my cards had been Mrs.

Lawrence Eldridge.

Bella actually was able to pass legislation that allowed women to have their own credit.

- The Equal Credit Opportunity Act was the first effort to clear up those problems.

And also it blasted a lot of myths.

- When you think of it, it seems so almost strange that that would have to be passed into law.

We always talk about helping people survive, helping people succeed.

And then there's Bella Abzug who's there to transform.

And that's what she did with that legislation.

- Women fought for their own credit, so American Express had to give in.

So, carry an American Express card as a symbol of women's right to credit.

(crowd cheers) - She introduced a bill that made it okay for the government to use Ms., M-S, as a form of address so women didn't have to be identified by their marital status.

(dramatic music)