PEORIA Jessica Ford gets emotional when she talks about H.R. 5050, the Women s Business Ownership Act of 1988.
“Before ‘88, if you were a woman business owner, you could not take out a loan, you could not sign for your own loan even if you owned the business,” said Ford, president of the central Illinois chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners the group that helped create the legislation. “You had to have your husband or brother sign off for you. So it wasn’t until 1988, when I was 4 years old. . It’s not that far away, which is absolutely crazy.”