Debt's Seduction and Defining Women's Worth: The Patriarchal Dance of Law and Finance in the New Debt Economy

Fall 2016 Legal History Workshop
When
December 2, 2016, 9:00 to 10:30 am
Where
Walter F. Mondale Hall
Room 473

University of Minnesota Law School
229 19th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455

This chapter examines the congressional and public dialogues surrounding the Equal Credit Opportunity Act(1974). Prohibiting credit discrimination on the basis of sex or marital status, the ECOA produced conflicting visions between women, feminists, legislators, and lenders on how to best determine women's worth as a measure for lending. As the debt women incurred increased, policymakers and financial institutions crafted a law that sidestepped intersecting systems of discriminations, undercutting women's access to capital from their employer and lender. This chapter establishes the ECOA as pivotal to intensifying a praxis of debt, which ultimately undermined the liberating potential of legal personhood.

Note: This is a discussion based workshop of work-in-progress with the expectation that those attending have read the workshop materials. Please contact Jacquelyn E. Burt at ruppx077@umn.edu for a copy of the materials.