“About 20 feet across from the famous Charging Bull statue — a symbol of Wall Street’s strength and might that has loomed over the street since 1989 — a bronze statue of a girl stands facing it, hands on hips, a defiant expression on her face.”
“The temporary statue — named “Fearless Girl” and placed overnight Monday by McCann New York advertising agency and its client, Boston-based State Street Global Advisors — may be a stunt to draw attention to the index fund giant’s campaign to get more women into board roles against the backdrop of International Women’s Day and the anniversary of the launch of an exchange-traded fund that tracks companies that have higher levels of gender diversity in its leadership.”
“the campaign ploy is also backed up by an actual threat from the big money manager, which has nearly $2.5 trillion in investments under management: If directors aren’t making tangible progress toward adding women to their board, they’ll vote their shares against them.”
We need more females in the corporate world and Wall Street. To do so, we would need more female graduates willing to enter the corporate world and Wall Street.
For this, I am not too optimistic. I have taught finance for almost 20 years. The male-female student ratio in my classroom has been quite consistently around 75%-25%. I have seen my female students enjoying far more good internship opportunities, such as Barclays and Morgan Stanley, and better placements than their male counterparts because many banks have diversity internship programs targeting females. But nothing has changed about this 75%-25% ratio.
A couple days ago, I had a conversation with my HS sophomore daughter and told her how precious she could be regarded if she is willing to enter a professional path that fewer females are around, say STEM or finance. She looked at me and said “isn’t it just a supply and demand thing?”
Great. They show a picture of the fearless girl…and someone put a pussy hat on her. How condescending. So much for the message. The odds of women ever getting taken seriously are pretty low.
I have two brave daughters and one brave niece living in NYC, and my other brave niece is set with a post-graduation job at which she’ll be outearning almost everyone (if not everyone) in the immediate family. Brave and fearless aren’t the same thing, but I appreciate the point of the statue.
@busdriver11, not disputing your point, but wondering what you mean by it. Why do you think the so-called pussy hat condescending to women, and will lead to people not taking women seriously?
Sure, AboutTheSame, I got the memo. We are supposed to consider a stupid looking pink hat called an obscene name for a woman’s genitals to be empowering. Sure. Giggle, giggle, titter, titter, tee-hee, isn’t that cute and clever? Sigh.
May as well put a see through mini skirt and a push-up bra on the fearless girl, it will send the same message. As in…what a joke.
I suspect that the vast majority of the women who have been out there in the trenches, might see it the same way.
I’ don’t mean to be cranky, but I’m just old and tired…
I was very skeptical and really didn’t understand the pussy hat until I was there and saw the unending color and unity. It had meaning on so many levels and was very powerful and moving. I don’t like to say “you had to be there” and just hope you will take my word for it. Afterwards I wished I had worn one. Next time I will.
Especially for the very young women, it did seem to me a celebration of being female. Their signs emphasized that and there was nothing silly about it at all. Those young women moved me to tears. I was so proud of them.
I’ll have to take your word for it alh. I wish they would have chosen a different symbol of unity. One that could have been respected by people who were not there, and not mocked.
They reclaimed the word. They took it back and made it powerful. They did not allow themselves to be demeaned. They owned it. No one was giggling. No one.
If my daughters stood in front of a bull I’d say it was a dumb thing to do, frankly.
I get that it’s a metaphor, yadda yadda yadda, but to me it’s a rather empty pr gesture. It’s not really about bravery, or female empowerment, in my opinion. It’s just a shallow media stunt, like Snapchat making a Marie Curie filter, but the filter had nothing to do with Marie Curie…
I was not trying to insult and demean you. I was illustrating how demeaning I felt that hat is, to women. Obviously you feel differently.I do believe alh did a good job of describing how she felt.
Feel free to report me if you like. I prefer that people handle disagreements on their own.
And I’ll clarify for you exactly who and what I am. I am a woman who has worked in an almost all male profession for 33 years. I am an old time feminist, and I want women to be respected and empowered. It bothers me when they do things that do not support that.
I’m afraid I do not understand whatever point it is that you are trying to make @MotherOfDragons. Do you think the walk was a misguided protest? Do you not like the fearless girl statue? Symbolism can be very strong.
