For generations, women faced legal and cultural barriers that limited their ability to own property, earn and manage money independently, access credit, and build wealth. Much has changed since then, and the financial influence of women continues to grow.
Today, women are earning more, investing more, inheriting significant wealth, and taking a larger role in financial decisions for themselves and their families. By 2030, women in the United States are projected to control $34 trillion in investable assets, representing roughly 38% of the nation’s total and nearly double the $18 trillion they controlled in 2023.
As women gain greater control over wealth, they are also playing a larger role in how money is invested, shared, passed down, and used to support the people, communities, and causes they care about. This shift has implications not only for women themselves, but also for families, financial institutions, and the broader economy.
A Short Timeline of Change
Before the Mid-1800s: Marriage Could Erase Financial Independence
In early America, many married women lived under the English common-law doctrine of coverture, which largely absorbed a woman’s legal identity into her husband’s. In practice, that often meant she couldn’t independently control property, keep her wages, sign contracts, or make financial decisions in her own name.
That began to change in the 19th century as states passed Married Women’s Property Acts. New York’s 1848 law was especially influential, allowing married women to retain certain property, while later reforms expanded their ability to conduct business, bring lawsuits, and exercise greater control over their finances.
These laws didn’t create equality overnight, but they marked an important shift: married women increasingly gained legal and economic rights of their own.
1920: The Right to Vote Expanded Women’s Influence
The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, prohibited states from denying the right to vote based on sex. While voting rights didn’t directly change women’s finances, they gave women a stronger voice in the laws and policies affecting work, property, taxes, education, and economic opportunity.
However, progress remained uneven. Many women of color, particularly Black women in the South, continued to face discriminatory voting barriers for decades. The same was true of financial progress: race, ethnicity, geography, and other factors greatly influenced who benefited from expanding opportunities and when.
1963: Equal Pay Became Federal Law
By the mid-20th century, more women were joining the paid workforce, but wage discrimination remained common. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made sex-based pay discrimination illegal for men and women performing substantially equal work under similar conditions.
While the law marked an important step, the earnings gap remains. In 1973, women working full time earned a median of about 57 cents for every dollar earned by men. In 2026, this figure has risen to about 82 cents.
Although the gap has narrowed, it still has important implications for women’s financial security. Over a lifetime, lower pay can mean smaller retirement contributions, lower Social Security benefits, fewer opportunities to invest, and less financial flexibility during career breaks.
1974: Women Gained Stronger Protection in Access to Credit
Before the 1970s, women could face very different lending standards based on sex or marital status. For instance, lenders might discount a married woman’s income, require her husband’s signature, or make it harder for her to qualify on her own.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 made this type of discrimination illegal and required lenders to evaluate creditworthy applicants without regard to sex or marital status.
The impact was significant. Independent access to credit gave women more ability to buy homes and cars, start businesses, establish their own credit history, and manage major financial transitions such as divorce.
Progress Worth Celebrating
Taken together, these changes helped expand women’s ability to earn, save, invest, borrow, and make financial decisions independently. The progress since then is visible across nearly every part of financial life:
- Women now have far greater legal and financial independence, including the ability to own property, establish credit, open financial accounts, and manage money in their own name.
- Women’s participation in the workforce grew dramatically during the second half of the 20th century and remains a major part of the U.S. economy.
- More women are earning college degrees, building careers, starting businesses, and taking an active role in investing and retirement planning.
- The earnings gap has also narrowed considerably among younger workers. According to Pew Research, women ages 25 to 34 earned about 95 cents for every dollar earned by men in the same age group in 2024, compared with about 85 cents for women across all age groups.
These gains matter because at the end of the day, financial independence creates options, making it easier to change careers, care for family, recover from a major life transition, support causes you care about, help the next generation, or retire on your own terms.
The Work Still Ahead
The progress women have made is substantial, but some financial differences persist. For example:
- The earnings gap has narrowed but hasn’t disappeared. While the reasons behind the pay gap are complex, differences in earnings ultimately affect how much someone can save and invest over time.
- Caregiving can influence long-term finances. In dual-earner marriages, wives spend an average of 12.2 hours per week on caregiving, compared with 9 hours for husbands, according to Pew Research Center. Reduced hours or time away from work can affect earnings growth, retirement contributions, employer matches, and Social Security benefits.
- Women’s experiences vary widely. Earnings and wealth-building opportunities differ by race and ethnicity, occupation, region, family structure, generation, and other circumstances.
Of course, these numbers don’t tell any one woman’s story. However, as women continue to make financial progress, it’s worth recognizing both how far we’ve come and where meaningful wealth-building gaps remain.
What Comes Next for Women and Wealth
The projection that women will control $34 trillion in U.S. investable assets by 2030 is often discussed in the context of the “great wealth transfer.” As baby boomers age, trillions of dollars will change hands through inheritances, survivorship, gifts, and other family transitions, putting women in a more central role in managing household wealth.
But it’s important not to view this shift through inheritance alone. Women are in this position today because of decades of progress, including more opportunities to work, earn, invest, build businesses, and make financial decisions for themselves and their families.
And while we’ve made remarkable financial progress in a relatively short period of time, the next chapter is about making the most of that progress: building knowledge, making informed decisions, and putting wealth to work in ways that support the lives, families, and priorities women care about most.
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