The bank and women
Whether to work, open an account, save or spend their money freely, women have managed to change their rights over the past 150 years in order to gain financial independence.
A long-term emancipation since the adoption of the Napoleonic Code, which equated them with minor children
Key dates:
French women’s journey toward financial independence
The financial emancipation of women in France began in 1881 : a law authorized women to open a savings account in complete autonomy. This measure was reinforced by the 1895 law, which allowed them to make deposits and withdrawals without their husband’s approval.
Until then, women had been declared “incapable adults” by the Napoleonic code of 1804 and could not manage their savings alone. The laws of 1881 and 1895 abandoned this notion in favor of another one: a woman “not assisted by her husband”, a mention that would be affixed to savings books opened by married women. Then in 1907, women obtained the right to dispose of their salary as they wished.
In the 1880s, new administrative departments were created and, for the first time, women were hired in large financial institutions, an opening that belongs to a more general movement of office jobs feminization.
Women seemed perfectly suited to these new jobs, such as in the collections office, the accounting department and especially in the securities and coupon offices.
In the securities office, they were responsible for paying out the bonds.
When the coupons were paid out, they detached them and pasted them onto the pages of the bank’s big ledgers, noting the date and name of the person to whom the amount was paid.
They worked under the scrutiny of a senior employee who was also a woman since women had no contact with customers or with their male colleagues.
In certain banks, they entered the building through a special entry and in all the establishments where they were employed, they worked and took their meals in separate rooms.
More and more working women and asserting their rights
In 1909, women, often young and educated from the middle classes, who needed to work, represented one tenth of the main staff at the Crédit foncier. In 1914, they accounted for almost 25% of the total Parisian staff at the CNEP (700 out of 3,000).
But these figures hide a disparity in status. Women were paid lower salaries than their male counterparts and had far less job security. In the bearer bonds department, for example, they could be hired the day before the main payment dates and dismissed immediately afterwards. In the less seasonal departments, their status was often only that of an auxiliary and it took them far longer than men to obtain a permanent status. In order to compensate for their precarious status, as early as 1902, the women employed on a daily basis at the CNEP created a free society that intended to finance indemnities in case of absence due to illness.
When the war changed mentalities
The movement of financial and professional emancipation of women in France was accelerated by the major conflicts of the 20th century.
The First World War led women to enter the labor market en masse and to manage daily life without men, who were away at the front.
The issue was above all economic: in these difficult times, it was necessary to find a way to support commercial and industrial development of the country.
![Women working on the railroads, 1914 – Bibliothèque nationale de France [National Library of France]](https://histoire.bnpparibas/wp-content/upload/2021/11/Le_travail_des_femmes_dans_les-chemins-de-fer-pendant-PGM-726x1024.jpeg)
![Woman at the oven, 1916 – Bibliothèque nationale de France [National Library of France]](https://histoire.bnpparibas/wp-content/upload/2021/11/Une_femme_boulangere_travaillant_a_son-four-Agence_Rol_1919-725x1024.jpeg)
Married women were called in to help in the offices as well as on the production lines, and during this period they also benefited from powers of attorney authorizing them to manage the money of their husband’s account.
During the Second World War, women obtained the right to vote, by the ordinance signed by General de Gaulle on April 21, 1944.
Women in the tabulating machine Revolution
To contain soaring processing costs and manage the growing volume of accounts, banks are adopting new ways of organising the industrial sector. It is first the mechanisation of the handling of the paper documents and then its processing using office accounting machines. Women are involved in the transformation of working methods taking place within banks, which makes them icons of the mechanical banking revolution and the processing of mass information.
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13 July 1965: The law that changed the lives of French women
For banks and women alike, the law of 13 July 1965 is decisive.
It allows a married woman to become, like a single person or a widow, a client like any other.
Read the transcript
BNP and its ancestor banks: acculturating women in the banking world to support them in their independence
In this episode, we will delve back into the 20th century to discuss a major advance in the progress of women’s rights in France. In 1965, on 13 July – the day before Bastille Day – another fortress was brought down.
It was on that date that the law finally allowed married women to open a bank account without their husband’s consent.
Let’s take a closer look at these years of French women’s struggle for financial independence and how the ancestor banks of BNP Paribas supported this new group of customers.
At the very start of the 20th century, working married women were finally free to keep their wages. It was not until 1938, however, that the law recognised their civil rights. They were only granted the right to vote in 1944, particularly due to the massive influx of women into the labour market during the two world wars.
Did you know that that the debate on the emancipation of women didn’t resume until the presidential election year of 1965?
That renewed momentum followed the increase in the employment rate of women and the arrival of younger generations on the labour market.
At that time, only 40% of women were in work and those who were married had to obtain their husband’s permission to open a bank account in their name.
When you think about it, that means it is less than 60 years since a wife has been able to manage her income independently.
Banks, considered at the time as austere and closed, played a very special role in supporting women towards this independence.
As early as 1957, the Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l’Industrie, the forerunner of BNP Paribas, launched a communication campaign aimed at female customers with a brochure entitled “The modern woman and questions of money”. Designed as an information booklet, it explains to female customers how to open an account, write a cheque and manage deposits and payments!
A few years later, in the wake of the May 68 movement and the societal changes taking place, women were becoming more active in demanding their rights.
Media and communication services to help women achieve financial independence
This therefore made them customers in their own right and led to banks offering them personalised services and advice.
Between 1968 and 1978, BNP launched advertising campaigns across a range of media, including television, radio and particularly the press and magazines aimed at women.
As so often in its communication, it displayed exceptional creativity in demystifying banking services and introducing women to the world of banking. It should be noted, however, that these campaigns adopted a stereotypical tone and aesthetic choices that have evolved a great deal since.
A key example from the period was the magazine La BNP et les Femmes (or “BNP and Women”), which was widely distributed to all the bank’s branches in 1968.
Featuring abundant illustrations, it adopted the conventions of women’s publications, with 20 colour pages providing advice and explanations on financial products and banking practices. As an example, let’s look at these few iconic pages of the magazine, presenting six profiles of women encountered in BNP branches – an opportunity to combine fashion tips with an introduction to the banking services they use. And that’s not all! To make the whole thing even more attractive, it also featured properties, how to purchase them and interior design ideas. As you can imagine, this was totally unprecedented at that time.
Suffice to say that BNP was the first French bank to carry out a campaign on this scale. Its success can be measured by the fact that letters were received from England asking for copies of the brochure to be sent!
In addition to communication campaigns, the bank sought to better understand women’s specific needs. It therefore organised round tables and meetings between women readers, in partnership with publications aimed at women.
In 1972, a debate was organised within the editorial staff of Mademoiselle magazine, in partnership with BNP, to survey young women under 25. Many responded, like Catherine:
“For me, the bank is the counter. I always talk to the same girl, she is nice and now that I know her, I prefer it to be her that looks after me. I have the impression that the others would laugh at me if I asked for their advice. I once wrote a cheque that bounced and I was very upset. I went to see her and she explained what I had to do.”
This quote reflects a fear among women of making mistakes when carrying out banking transactions and proves that having female counter staff in branches was reassuring for them.
In the same spirit, let’s look at an educational initiative launched by BNP.
The year was 1973. ELLE magazine and BNP were organising a round table with five young women without bank accounts, all aged between 19 and 25. They were invited to come into branches as spokespersons and reporters! They then passed on women’s questions about banking to the branch manager and his team. All responses were then shared with the magazine’s readers in the following issue.
BNP Paribas is strongly committed to gender equality
Interestingly, the bank even considered opening branches dedicated exclusively to female customers. Although this initiative ultimately didn’t come to pass, it showed BNP to be a bank where women count.
That was also the slogan used in 1978 for the new advertising campaign, “It’s me who counts”, which featured in TV ads, posters and press articles.
You may be wondering how these campaigns were received by women? To find out, let’s look at a few figures.
In 1982, BNP noted that 77% of women had bank accounts, up from just 27% 10 years previously. Women then represented half of the bank’s customers.
At BNP Paribas, women always count. The various brochures mentioned are all from collections in our archives, allowing us to trace the role they have played in the bank up until today.
In this same spirit, BNP Paribas has partnered with other French banks to highlight documents illustrating the progress in women’s rights, as employees and customers, through the “I am the one Who count” project.
Several years ago now, the Group also adopted an ambitious gender equality policy. Did you know that in 2021, women represent more than 52% of the company’s total workforce? The bank even aims to make 1000 more IT positions available to women by 2024.
As part of this movement, BNP Paribas and its Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, have been involved in the UN Women HeForShe programme since 2015. This initiative aims to promote gender equality across all Group entities worldwide!
How far we have come on the long road to financial independence for women. This first step is only the beginning, however, as many equality challenges still remain to be overcome!
Now married women can open a bank account on their behalf and work without their husband’s consent. They then become full customers.