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The day before July 14, 1965, another revolution broke out: a law authorizes the French to exercise a profession and to open a bank account without the agreement of their husband. Flashback.
In 1965, women have passed for twenty years and they massively invested the world of work. The family schedule has been created, feminist claims are increasing. At the end of the year, the French will have the President of the Republic for the first time by direct universal suffrage. The voting of women will count, a right that de Gaulle granted them in 1944. He will soon be a candidate … Emancipating women, modernizing society is essential. The Minister of Justice then presents a bill considered to be “revolutionary”, which introduces equality between men and women within the home. Voted in Parliament, the law of July 13, 1965 authorizes married women to exercise a profession, to open a bank account and to sign checks without the authorization of their husband, as well as to have their property independently. All of this was formally prohibited by the Napoleon Civil Code, in force since 1804.
Capital emancipation
Historian Sylvie Gautier, author of Women, banks and money (1960-2000) (Ed. De l’Harmattan, 2024) assures him: “When the wives open their first bank account, their feeling of freedom is immense.” It translates into figures. Two years after the 1965 law, women already represent 25 % of customers, according to the Crédit Lyonnais archives. This share will further grow with French access to the banking system: “In 1980, 77 % of French women have an account. The dynamics within couples are upset: women are now stakeholders in financial decisions, ”adds the historian. At the origin of the law of 2021, aimed at accelerating economic and professional equality, the deputy Marie-Pierre Rixain reveals the scope of this historic law: “This is one of the pillars of the women’s rights, with the right to vote and the right to abortion. Economic rights are in fact the beginning of history, because when you do not have professional or banking autonomy, you cannot live, as Simone de Beauvoir wrote, “the adventure of being yourself”. “
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Unfinished process
In 2025… Many remain to be done: 23 % of French women still do not have a bank account and 32 % have no income than that of their spouse, reveals an IFOP 2024 survey. Conjugal economic violence would affect 41 % of women (IFOP 2023). The subject begins to mobilize banks. Isabelle Loc, director of the Commercial Bank in France BNP Paribas, testifies: “We have made our bank advisers aware and produced a guide to allow them to detect the signs of economic violence, and support women when it is.” If women take over their financial education more, they are still too few to invest: “Only 14 % of our customers have life insurance, and 12 % a PEA is half as much as men,” underlines Isabelle Loc. For the anniversary of the law of July 13, 1965, the bank therefore offers its customers two preferential offers to encourage them to open a personal bank account and life insurance. There are still other steps. “The priority today is the individualization of the tax, insists Marie-Pierre Rixain. When women are full tax subjects, social allowances, for example, will be individualized. Employers, banking operators will no longer look at women as half a couple. ” It is certain: “the adventure of being yourself” only begins.
