On March 7th, 2017 (on the eve of International Women’s Day), an artist installed “The Fearless Girl” in NYC’s Bowling Green Park, home to an already popular statue: The Wall Street Bull. This statue of a little girl faces the massive “Charging bull”. The piece was intended to bring attention to issues like: “the lack of diversity on corporate boards and the gender pay gap” (AJ+).
MccAnn New York and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) teamed up with artist Kristen Visbal to create what would make 2017 a year to remember for International Women’s Day. The statue was only intended to stay erected for a week, but after high demand, the mayor’s office agreed to leave it up until April. Now, visitors and New York residents are fighting to keep her permanently.
Days after gaining attention, a petition was posted online asking for twenty-five thousand votes. Currently it’s at twenty-three thousand. We are so close, and we need this!
Here’s a link to sign the petition (if you want to support this cause): https://www.change.org/p/city-of-new-york-make-wall-street-s-fearless-girl-permanent
Why we need her
She makes a difference!
In front of the ‘Fearless Girl’ is a plaque that reads: Know the power of women in leadership. “An MSCI study suggested companies with strong female leadership generated a return on equity of 10.1% per year, versus 7.4% for those without a critical mass of women at the top,” SSGA said. Yet one in four Russell 3000 companies don’t have even one woman on their board, and nearly 60% of boards are less than 15 % women.” (Business Insider).
The Challenger
And in this corner weighing at 7,100 lbs., with a 96% chance of excluding women from holding CEO or other high titles: The Charging Bull. Originally installed in 1989 after the stock market crash of 1987 as Guerilla art (without permission), it was designed by artist, Arturo Di Modica; the bull is thought to be a symbol for “strength and power of the American people”. Although it was brought in good faith, we cannot undermine its heavy tones of patriarchy in this exclusive, and male- dominated work field.
A symbol for female empowerment
Women have fought for the right to vote and higher education, so we will now fight for the right to work and be compensated like any other person with our rank!
Here at Her Campus, our purpose is to empower women by building an online community in which we can connect through these articles. Scrolling through, it’s easy to find something super relatable and helpful. As a community it’s not only important to talk about these topics, but also go out and stand up for equal change.
We have to break the glass ceiling and end gender discrimination. I think this is a reminder for those on Wall Street that: we’re here. If you don’t hire us, we will fight and make noise until you do!
Currently, the US has one of the highest female managerial representations, which is great. However, it’s not CEOs or jobs in parliament—but that’s a WHOLE other problem to talk about— and I don’t think we should be fighting if we have the skills and experience: we deserve it.
What do you think? Do we keep the “Fearless Girl”?
Please leave a comment down below if you feel inclined to do so.
To read more about this:
http://www.campaignlive.com/article/petition-grows-keep-fearless-girl-wall-street/1426925
http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/news/wall-street-fearless-girl-reaction/