Madeline McWhinney Dale (1922-2020) was the first woman officer of the Federal Reserve Bank who led the way for women and minorities in the financial industry.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
All month, we’re talking about women in the driver’s seat. Today’s story is about a banking trailblazer. As the first woman officer of the Federal Reserve Bank, she led the way for women and minorities in the financial industry. When she helped found the First Women’s Bank, she broke through centuries of sexist banking practices.
Let’s talk about Madeline McWhinney Dale.
Madeline Houston McWhinney born on March 11, 1922. The McWhinney’s were a banking family. Madeline’s father, Leroy, became president of the International Trust Company, a Denver bank. Her mother, Alice, had an economics degree from Smith College, but stayed at home to raise Madeline and her six younger siblings.
Growing up, Madeline treasured the Sunday walks she shared with her father, where they would discuss finance. Sadly, he died in a car crash when Madeline was 17.
All seven of the McWhinney children were sent to the East Coast for college. Madeline landed at Smith, her mother’s alma mater. Inspired by her father, she majored in finance. She then received her MBA from New York University. Years later, the NYU alumni association would name her “man of the year.”
In 1943, Madeline went to work at the Federal Reserve, the central banking system of the United States. She was wooed by both the pay -- the Fed offered $300 more than other banks -- and the rare opportunity for advancement.
World War II had ushered in an era of professional growth for women, who stepped into roles that had been traditionally filled by men. Madeline found her niche by taking on tasks that her male counterparts were uninterested in doing. At the time, that included specializing in computer technology and electronic communications.
Madeline’s unique skill set worked to her advantage. In 1960, she was appointed chief of the new Market Statistics Department. Those computers that male bankers had felt were beneath them? They were now being used to monitor the government securities market. Madeline became the first woman officer in the history of the Federal Reserve. It was so unprecedented that there wasn’t even a women’s restroom on the officers’ floor.
This was, of course, hardly Madeline’s first experience of sexism. When she first started at the Fed, her boss had refused to let her onto the trading floor. For years after, she’d been forced to attend business meetings at the Union League Club, a men’s club which banned women until the 1980s. Madeline had to enter through a side door, chaperoned by an older, male Fed coworker.
In 1967, Madeline was again promoted, this time to assistant vice president. Once again, she was the first woman to hold that position.
In 1975, after a career spent as the only woman in the room, Madeline changed course. She became the first president of the First Women’s Bank in New York. It was the first commercial bank in the country to be majority owned and operated by women. Madeline was the first female bank president in the history of the state.
First Women’s Bank became a darling of the second wave feminist movement. It offered expanded hours to accommodate working women’s schedules, and checkbooks that automatically made copies of checks. Works by women artists decorated the walls. The bank offered classes on money management, and maintained a library of financial books and magazines. Betty Friedan was on the organizing committee.
Madeline didn’t necessarily fit in with the more prominent members of this crowd. She was described in the press as “no frills.” She made it clear in interviews that her priority in decision making was fiscal responsibility.
Madeline knew the importance of a bank helmed by women. Women had historically been considered bad credit risks. They struggled to get business loans and credit cards. When Women’s First Bank opened its doors, most banks still didn’t allow women to open checking accounts without their husband’s explicit permission.
Madeline was out to prove that women were viable customers.
“Bankers have been ignoring a big market,” she said in a Newsweek magazine interview. “They still have the Victorian notion that women don’t want to bother their pretty little heads about investing and financial management.”
Still, Madeline’s dedication to the bottom line didn’t always align with the bank’s feminist politics. She resigned, frustrated, after just a year at First Women’s Bank. The bank could never reach financial success, and folded in 1992.
In 1980, Madeline was chosen to serve on the first New Jersey Casino Control Commission. Plans were underway to restructure Atlantic City around gambling. In 1983, she became the Whitney Museum of American Art’s chief financial officer. And until 1994, she served as president of her husband John Dale's consulting firm.
Madeline broke through a number of glass ceilings, but never considered herself an especially important figure in the feminist movement. She approached her career with a strident practicality. “Know where you want to go and go there,” she said.
Still, Madeline cleared the way for women in the financial industry. She proved, over and over again, that money was not a man’s game.
On June 19th, 2020, Madeline died in her sleep, at her home in Red Bank, New Jersey. She was 98 years old.
All month, we’re talking about women in the driver's seat.
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Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow!