Gail M. Beaton
The Women's Bank: A Denver Success Story
by Thomas J. Noel and Gail M. Beaton
Although the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed in 1974, most women did not know the law existed. Bankers frequently told women they needed a male relative to co-sign for their loans. In response to such discrimination, a group of women and a few men founded The Women's Bank, N.A. in Denver in 1978. In its first easy of existence it collected a million dollars in deposits. Soon it would become the most successful women's bank in the United States.
Dr. Tom Noel is a well-known and prolific writer of Colorado history; I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to work on this history with him and to have met the pioneering women who founded the bank and ensured its success.
The Women's Bank is available for purchase at the Center for Colorado Women's History at the Byers-Evans House Museum in Denver, Colorado.