Madeline McWhinney Dale was a banker who broke new ground for women in finance as the first female officer of the Federal Reserve Bank.
- Died: June 19, 2020 (Who else died on June 19?)
- Details of death: Died in her sleep at her home in Red Bank, New Jersey at the age of 98.
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Trailblazing career
Dale was the first woman to run for election to the board of trustees of the Federal Reserve Retirement System in 1955, after she had been working for the Fed as an economist for 12 years. She campaigned hard for the position, and she won – in a landslide. Five years later, at a time when most banks wouldn’t let a woman open a checking account without her husband’s permission, Dale became the Fed’s first female officer. She later became its first female assistant vice president. Dale served as president of the First Women’s Bank, founded by prominent feminists including Betty Friedan (1921 – 2006), for two years in the 1970s.
Dale on how she rose in her career
“I did the things that the men didn’t want to do, and one of them in those days was the computer. That was very fortunate for me, because it led to a lot of other very interesting things.” —from a 2008 oral history interview for the Fed
What people said about her
Full obituary: The New York Times
