In 1999, the Fannie Mae Foundation conducted a survey to determine whether women are more financially independent than they were 25 years before, when only one in three had checking accounts.
The survey of 1,304 men and women found that supermarkets, medical providers, banks, colleges and online services scored high for gender equality, but the mortgage industry and home-repair and construction services failed the test.
Though mortgage lenders got poor grades on the gender-equality issue, the Fannie Mae survey found that only 33 percent of women surveyed believed that they were discriminated against when it comes to loans, mortgages and credit cards.
Compare this with the 1970s. Back then, single women couldn't get a mortgage unless they were nurses or teachers with tenure. A veteran builder remembered one woman who was approved for a mortgage only after submitting a sworn statement from her doctor saying that she was unable to have children.
The situation for women seems to have improved since the 1970s, but, from what the Consumer Federation of America is saying, not much has changed since the Fannie Mae survey almost eight years ago.
According to the CFA, women are more likely to receive subprime home mortgage than men and these higher rates of subprime lending make it harder for households headed by women to build wealth through homeownership.
In 2005, about a third of women took out mortgages with interest rates over 7.66 percent, compared with about one quarter of men, the federation reported. Long-term fixed rates were averaging under 6 percent for most of the year.
The study examined 4.4 million mortgage originations throughout the country where borrowers identified their gender. The federation examined borrower incomes based on the median income where they lived to analyze comparable borrowers across the country.
The analysis found that the subprime disparity between women and men increased for women with higher incomes relative to men with similar earnings. Although women earning below the area median income were 8 percent more likely to receive subprime loans than similarly earning men, women earning more than double the area median income were 50 more likely to receive subprime loans than men with similar earnings.
"Evidence suggests that women have slightly higher credit scores on average than men and similar credit usage patterns, yet the fact that women are more likely to receive more expensive mortgages at all income levels undercuts the lending industries calm assurances that borrowers are priced based on their creditworthiness," said Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the federation.
The 1999 Fannie Mae study found that women believe that they have made bigger strides when comparing themselves with the last generation than do men. This may be because men historically have felt that they have had the final say, particularly in financial matters.
They also are more likely to think of their work outside the home as careers instead of jobs. More than half of all women are more likely to quit a job to seek a better one than were women of their mothers' generation, the survey said.
The 1999 survey concluded, however, that men were far more likely than women to express confidence in their familiarity with the jargon of homeownership, such as escrow accounts, insurance and loan points.
The federation's survey found that African American and Latino women had the highest incidences of subprime lending in 2005 -- and the gap between women of color and white men increased as incomes rose. African American women earning double the area median income were nearly five times more likely to receive subprime home purchase mortgages than white men with similar incomes and Latino women earning twice the area median income were about four times more likely to receive subprime purchase mortgages than white men with similar earnings.
African American women make up half the African American purchase mortgage borrowers and Latino women make up nearly a third of Latino home purchase mortgage borrowers.
For purchase mortgages, women earning double the median income are 46.4 percent more likely to receive subprime mortgages than men with similar incomes. In contrast, women earning below the area median income are 3.3 percent more likely to receive subprime mortgages. Women earning between the median and twice the median income are 28.1 percent more likely to receive subprime purchase mortgages than men.
In a survey by Virginia Slims in 1974, about 56 percent of women in 1974 felt there was financial discrimination against them, compared with 33 percent today. Meanwhile, 47 percent of men responded in 1974 that there was financial discrimination against women, compared with 21 percent today.
If you look at the results of the 1999 Fannie Mae survey, it's not too out of line to acknowledge that we've come a long way -- and please forgive me -- baby, but the federation's 2005 survey seems to be saying that we seem to still have a long way to go.
