I have a joint mortgage with dp, and a joint account that the bills come out of. My name is first on both accounts because I am the higher earner.
My friend has the same accounts with her dh (at the same building society coincidentally), but he is the higher earner so his name is first on both accounts, even though the current account was originally hers. She has had a bit of a rant about it this week, because the voting papers have come out for the agm and only the first named person on a joint account can vote. She claims that she is being discriminated against because she is a woman.
My understanding was that naming the higher earner first was an attempt to reduce sexism within the financial world, because previously it was always the man named first regardless of earnings.
So is she overthinking things and looking for reasons to have a rant? Or am I underthinking things and accepting a system that looks from the outside to be non-sexist but actually names men first more often than women because society sets women up to be the lower earner within a traditional relationship, especially once there are children? What do you think, is there a fairer way to do it?