Culture Series: Bank on Her

Join HumanitiesDC and guest curators Ingrid Gillies and Leslie Aroon Wash for a celebration of Women's History Month with "Bank on Her: Exploring the Impact of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)." The event will celebrate this cornerstone piece of legislation, passed just fifty years ago, by exploring oral histories of women who experienced gender-based discrimination while pursuing lines of credit. Additionally, we will map the story of how the Equal Credit Opportunity Act came to be a national piece of legislation and discuss how women navigated their finances prior to the protections enacted in 1974. We shall also reveal the story of the Women's National Bank, the first federally chartered women's bank founded here in Washington, DC. The event will include a panel discussion, archival imagery, and clips from oral history interviews.

ASL Interpretation will be provided.

More About the Curators: Leslie Aroon Walsh is an archive producer/ photo editor, with 15+ years’ experience sourcing dynamic imagery for documentaries, museum exhibits and publications. She specializes in factual storytelling, focusing on science and history subjects. She lucked into oral history after finding herself in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, many years ago. Her intentions were only to stay long enough to help her husband settle in for a sixth month postdoc, when a once in a lifetime opportunity fell into her lap. Next thing she knew, she was visiting kitchen tables throughout the state, recording stories from veterans, for the Library of Congress. To this day, she still occasionally pinches herself, to remind her of her luck.

Ingrid Gillies is a recent graduate who works in financial regulation. Her commitment to public service and appreciation for storytelling led her to the HumanitiesDC Oral Histories Workshop, to capture the stories of women who benefitted from the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Her prior research includes her senior capstone that compared nonpartisan governance structures at the federal state and level and won the CWRU U.S Politics Prize in 2023.

Please note: RSVPs are not required for entry, and entry is based on a first-come, first-serve basis. We appreciate your donations, but please note that if the event reaches capacity, donations will not be refundable.

For reasonable accommodation requests regarding access and inclusion, please contact Jimmy Watkins ([email protected]) no later than five business days before the start of this event.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (New Books Space), 901 G Street Northwest, Washington, United States