Throughout history women have never been financially equal with men. Even in more modern times, banks and lenders have discriminated against women. Before the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act banks could – and did – refuse women a mortgage unless they had a male guarantor. Even if a woman was out-earning her husband or her father, she still needed their signature to take out a loan.

“When I got married I applied for a mortgage, but they rejected it, saying I might leave work and have a baby,” Marilyn Beale tells me. She worked at a large bank in London from 1966-75, which granted its staff a great mortgage deal… but only if you were a man. “I used to say to the bank, ‘Yeah, but men leave too, for all sorts of reasons!’ No one expected a woman to want to continue working. If you had a baby you left and never came back, except to show the baby.”

Why we need to be challenging outdated financial stereotypes - bring on 2019's financial feminism