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History

June 14, 2026

Episode 1: 1974

Test

It’s 1974.

You have a job. You have a salary. You even pay your bills early. And you cannot get a credit card in your own name.

You can get one as “Mrs.” — your husband’s first and last name, just not your name. His. And every single payment you make, on time, for years, builds his credit. Not yours. You’re basically a ghost on your own account.

If you’re single, it’s even worse. They’ll ask if you have a man — a father, a brother, an uncle, even just a friend — who’ll co-sign. They’ll ask if you’re planning to have children. Whether you’re on birth control. Those are the factors they’re using to assess your risk for a credit card. Nothing to do with how you handle your money. You’ve already proven that. It has to do with your anatomy.

Then on October 28, 1974, a law called the Equal Credit Opportunity Act gets signed, and for the first time a woman can have credit in her own name.

That’s not ancient history. For perspective: a woman who was 30 in 1974 is in her 80s now. So, no wonder they were burning their bras.

Why I’m starting here

Not because I want to make you mad first thing — though a little mad is fine, and probably appropriate. I’m starting here because almost no one knows these facts, or they’re just not thinking about them. I didn’t, for a long time. Most women I talk to have no idea that their own mother or grandmother couldn’t get a credit card in her own name until 1974, or take out a business loan without a man co-signing until 1988.

And I’m not just dropping a sad history fact on you and moving on. When you don’t know the history, you’re at risk of repeating it — and when you don’t know these details, you start to think the gaps that still exist are somehow your fault. That you’re bad with money. That you’re not ambitious enough. That everyone else got a memo you missed.

You didn’t miss a memo. The game was rigged before you sat down at the table. If we made it from horses to flying in a hundred years, imagine what we can do from 1974 to 2074. The more we know about this, the more progress we can make, and the more intentional we can be about building a better world for the women coming after us.

The part where it gets interesting

Let’s talk about that spending power, because I think we need to define what I mean when I say women “control” the money.

Women control around 85 percent of consumer spending in the US — roughly $17 trillion. And “control” is the right word. In my house, when my husband and I decide to move or buy a car, he’s not picking the house or the car by himself. We both have input. But if something matters to me, it becomes a priority, because he’s a great husband — and also because he just doesn’t care what brand our food is, what the home decor looks like, what the kids wear, or where they go to summer camp. He knows I’ve got it. I’m the default parent who ends up making those calls.

And I’m not alone in that. By 2028, women are projected to control 75 percent of all discretionary spending in the US. Globally, women control over $30 trillion in consumer spending, projected to hit $40 trillion by 2030. The category breakdowns are wild — per Harvard Business Review, women make 94 percent of home-furnishing decisions, 92 percent of vacation decisions, 91 percent of home-buying decisions. Equifax says 80 percent of car-buying decisions run through women. We’re 70 percent of primary grocery shoppers and 90 percent of healthcare decision-makers. (All sourced in the show notes if you want to dig in.)

So we decide where the money goes — homes, cars, groceries, the family budget. We’re running the spending of the entire economy.

And here’s the mismatch. We own over 40 percent of all businesses, but we bring in about 6 percent of the revenue and receive about 1 percent of the venture capital. We’re holding the purse strings of the whole economy… and we can barely get our own businesses funded.

The power and the access are wildly out of sync. We’re trusted to decide where $17 trillion goes, and not trusted to run the businesses. Those two things cannot both be rational. One of them is a story somebody told about us — and it’s a story we get to stop believing.

Who I am, and why I’m saying this

Hi, I’m Ashley 👋 I run two companies with my sister, both in the Meta ads space. One is an agency — After Organic — where we run Meta ads for Amazon creators. The other is a software tool, LUMI, that helps coaches, course creators, and service providers run their own Meta ads.

What’s been interesting is stepping into the tech-founder space as a woman who didn’t major in this — no background in development or tech. I just saw a problem and figured out how to solve it. Between the two companies, I’m inside hundreds of women-led businesses, looking at the actual numbers. I have a front-row seat to the female economy, especially on the small-business side, that a lot of people don’t get. And I’m not studying it from the outside. I’m in it. I’m the audience.

I started a business in the first place because I saw the same gap I keep talking about. Over 80 percent of women-founded businesses never reach six figures — that’s $100,000 a year, which works out to about $8,888 a month. I set six figures as my goal as a wedding photographer and never hit it… until I started running Facebook ads. And less than 2 percent of women’s businesses ever cross seven figures. I want to know why, and I want to talk about it out loud so we can change it.

What this show is

Three things.

  1. One — we tell the truth about women and money: the pay gaps, the funding gaps, the history, the stuff that’s still rigged. I’ll give you my honest opinion, and you’re allowed to disagree with me. I’m not saying I’m the most knowledgeable person in the room; I’m just someone brave enough to look into it and say it out loud, with sources to back it up.
  2. Two — we give women the mic, with real conversations and real numbers.
  3. Three, and the one I care about most — we put more money in the hands of women. Every episode, I point you at one woman-owned business worth backing, with a link, so you can do something about it in 30 seconds.

This show is for three women: the one already building something and tired of being either hyped up or talked down to; the one standing in the “should I even do this” doorway who wants the real picture; and the one who may never start a business but wants to put her money behind the women who do. If you’re any of those three, you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Listen now. Start with Episode 1, Welcome to The Female Economy: Listen Here

Get the Sunday Brief. Every Sunday I send the week’s news on women and money, the history, and a couple of women-owned businesses worth backing. Click HERE to sign up!

Come find me on Instagram @ashleybraswellxo or email ashley@afterorganic.com — I want your questions and topic suggestions.

Sources:

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