What were feminist credit unions, and why did Anchorage have one in the 1970s?

Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

Depending on the perspective, it was either a couple of years or centuries in the making. Plans began in earnest with an April 6, 1976 meeting of like-minded Anchorage women. After unforeseen delays, the Anchorage Feminist Federal Credit Union, or FCCU, opened its doors on Aug. 26, 1977, in a spartan office within a nondescript Fifth Avenue building.

The date was no accident. Aug. 26 is Women’s Equality Day, recalling the 1920 date when the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was officially certified. In other words, that is the day women’s suffrage became real, albeit in an illusory fashion for minorities. A woman’s right to vote had been explicitly denied by most of the original states after independence, so the road to suffrage had been long indeed.

A more contemporary moment on the path to a feminist credit union in Anchorage was the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act, aka ECOA, that made it illegal to discriminate against a credit applicant “on the basis of sex or marital status.” The ECOA was meant to curb rampant financial discrimination against women. Before the 1970s, most banks required a man to cosign in order for a woman to open an account, a father for an underage woman, a husband for an adult woman. Likewise, most banks and other lenders refused to open lines of credit for female applicants. As you might imagine, widows and divorced women especially struggled in this financial landscape. Talk to your female elders about what banking and finance was like for them back in the day.

However, a law does not in and of itself change reality. Awareness, enforcement, and shifts and culture prompted by the law can change reality, which requires effort. The 1945 Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act did not end discrimination in Alaska. The 1965 Voting Rights Act did not end voter suppression. From an English literacy requirement in the original state constitution to unequal voting access in villages today, Alaska has never been in compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

The ECOA took effect in 1975. A study completed two years later found that 97% of banks were still not compliant. Apart from the intransigence of banks, some women understandably lacked faith in institutions that had for so long discriminated against them, that were run by the same men who had implemented and enforced policies that barred women from accounts and credit. So, some women sought alternatives.

In the 1970s, a wave of female-operated businesses opened around the country, independent grassroots initiatives that collectively sought to provide alternatives. Safe spaces. It was an autonomous movement based on the estimable belief that a woman’s position in a society was not safe until there were female-led institutions at every level. Many of these businesses were explicit in their focus on women, in their names, branding, and advertising. Feminist coffee shops were a common example, and Anchorage was not absent from the trend. Ruby’s Coffeehouse opened in 1977. As the May 1977 issue of the lesbian newsletter Klondyke Kontact put it, “There are numerous places for men and women or just men, but Ruby’s is the ONLY place for just wimmin.”

While coffeehouses offered valuable meeting spaces for women, the banking issues remained. There had been isolated examples of women’s banks dating back to the 19th century, but in the 1970s, amid debates on the Equal Rights Amendment, the number of financial institutions led by women rapidly increased. In 1973, the Detroit FCCU opened, inspiring a wake of imitators. Just five years later, there were nine women’s banks and almost 30 feminist credit unions scattered across the United States and Canada, from Miami to Anchorage.

Not that anyone reading this needs a refresher on the differences between a bank and a credit union, but here it is anyway. Banks and credit unions are alike in that they both offer checking accounts, savings accounts, and loans — basic financial services. Both are federally insured, banks via the FDIC and credit unions via the National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA. They differ primarily in that banks are for-profit institutions while credit unions are nonprofits. Credit unions are cooperatives owned by the members using them. Bank profits go to the owners or shareholders, while credit unions disburse dividends to their members.

Founding Anchorage FCCU leadership included Susan Elliott, Renee Murray, and Liz Johnston, among many others. Murray initiated the project, inspired by magazine articles about feminist credit unions in the Lower 48. She told the Daily News in 1978, “I’d heard about feminist credit unions and thought it was a good idea and that someone should start it — and finally decided it would be me.” Searching for information, she wrote the Detroit FCCU, who in turn put her in contact with Elliott. The latter woman had been a co-manager of the Detroit FCCU’s Ann Arbor branch and, as of Murray’s inquiry, was coincidentally taking accounting classes at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Less than four months after the initial April 1976 meeting, the Anchorage FCCU members formally applied for a federal charter. As the application required, they were formally sponsored by several like-minded local organizations. The members planned for an Aug. 26, 1976 opening, but the NCUA repeatedly rejected and delayed their application. The NCUA told them that they did not meet charter requirements. When Anchorage FCCU representatives asked to see those requirements, they were denied. A year and a half after applying, the Anchorage FCCU charter was finally granted, notably after the threat of a legal intervention.

On the day the Anchorage FCCU opened, $75,000 was deposited. Four months after opening, they were already operating in the black and paid dividends of 5.25%. Half a year later, they had more than doubled their initial membership. One year after opening, the Anchorage FCCU and its members celebrated their survival with a champagne afternoon. Three years after opening, they had 1,200 members who each paid a $5 fee and a minimum $5 deposit.

In 1980, Liz Johnston told the Daily News that she hoped “down the road we won’t need a feminist credit union,” that women and men would be functionally equal in America. As with many stories about hopes and dreams, the narrative here would be more triumphant if it ignored the final chapter. Most of the feminist credit unions around the country failed within a few years. In many ways, they suffered from the same structural issues that prompted their formation. The same gendered financial discrimination that made feminist credit unions appealing did not disappear. Decades of sexism, employment discrimination, and wage gaps have long-term effects. In short, women tended to have and make less money, less money than even nonprofit credit unions needed to survive.

Anchorage FCCU founding member Renee Murray spoke to the Anchorage Times in 1978, saying, “One thing I’ve noticed is how much women do with so little money. And it was a shock to me. I didn’t know wages were so low.” She continued, “I think the misconception that women can’t handle money is just that. They may not look too affluent because their wages are so low, but they’re darned good managers or they wouldn’t survive.”

In 1985, the Anchorage FCCU merged with the Alaska Federal Credit Union. Though described by the Daily News as “financially ailing,” the feminist credit union still possessed $660,000 in assets as of the merger. Anchorage FCCU vice president Janet Arenz said, “I would really like to have seen it continue. On the other hand, I would rather have a community that provides financial and economic opportunities to women.”

Over its relatively brief lifespan, the Anchorage Feminist Federal Credit Union made hundreds of loans that changed women’s lives in ways small and large. Members borrowed to consolidate their bills and to pay off loans from relatives, there again being few other lending alternatives for women. The credit union made loans for Christmas expenses and medical bills, travel costs and car repairs. There were loans for abortions and weddings. Their time perhaps passed but can be remembered, their intentions recalled and imitated.

Key sources:

“Alaska Credit Unions Merge. Anchorage Daily News, October 3, 1985, C-8.

Bartscher, Alina Kristin. “It Takes Two to Borrow: The Effects of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act on Housing, Credit, and Labor Market Decisions of Married Couples.” Review of Financial Studies, 36 no. 1 (2023): 155-193.

Dumaine, Danielle. “' Put Your Money Where Your Movement Is’: The Feminist Credit Unions of the 1970s.” Journal of Women’s History, 34 no. 3 (2022): 103-123.

Echols, Alice. Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967–1975. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989.

“Feminist Credit Union Completes First Year ‘Swimmingly.’” Anchorage Times, April 9, 1978, E1.

Field, Kathy. Credit Union to Give Women Control of Their Own Money.” Anchorage Daily News, August 25, 1977, 9.

Klondyke Kontact, May 1977.

“Members Make Application for Feminist Credit Union.” Anchorage Times, July 6, 1976, 23.

Michals, Debra. “The Buck Stops Where? 1970s Feminist Credit Unions, Women’s Banks, and the Gendering of Money.” Business and Economic History On-Line, 16 (2018).

Mott, Sarah. “Feminist Credit Union Establishes Itself.” Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 1980, C3, C9.

Nightingale, Suzan. “Feminist Credit Union Already in the Black.” Anchorage Daily News, May 3, 1978, 6.

Stephens, Jodi. “Liz Johnston: Always On the Go.” Anchorage Daily News, November 4, 1980, D1.

“Women Hope to Organize Feminist Credit Union Here.” Anchorage Times, March 23, 1976, 17.