Viewpoint -- Have We Come A Long Way Baby?

My boyfriend and I recently bought our first house. If it weren't for the rules of grammar, I would say that me and my boyfriend bought a house -- but I can't. And in the eyes of our mortgage company, my name shouldn't go first either. It seems that the man's name -- regardless of financial worth, credit history, or job security -- should appear first on the deed. I was assured that "clerical concerns" were the reason for such a positioning of names. Although the unfair treatment I received is small potatoes in comparison, I received a dose of what many women in business have to deal with daily: discrimination. In my situation I was told I was signing on the wrong line of myriad documents that go along with buying a home. I was signing on the "borrower" line -- I am not the borrower. I am the co-borrower, which means that my signature goes on the last line. My boyfriend hung his head and mumbled to the loan specialist that he shouldn't have opened that can of worms. Too late. "Why am I not the 'borrower'?" I asked. I knew what his response was going to be; I just wanted to see if he would say the words. His preface: "You're not going to like this." My boyfriend now was fidgeting in his chair like an 8-year-old whose mom had just found out he put the cat in the dryer. "Try me," I said. The loan specialist, who also was fidgeting, told me that if a woman's name is listed first on the mortgage documents, then the processing department assumes that there are no other borrowers. The loan company didn't want to risk not getting the man's name on the deed, so it preferred the man's name appearing first. Many thoughts ran through my mind: