How I've heard it said is that women might not have been able to get a credit card without male approval. You can still drive home how recently the USA was a tyrannical patriarchy, without giving jerks a way to undermine you saying, "Nuh uh! Look at this lady with a credit card in 1492, checkmate atheists!" There were exceptions before 1974, but the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act made it illegal to require male approval for a woman's loan. And it's astonishing that was only 50 years go.