Why This Statue of a Young Girl Is Taking Over Wall Street

Wall Street little girl statue
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters

On International Women’s Day, a bronze statue of a young girl was erected in one of the most historically testosterone-driven spaces in New York City: Wall Street. The piece, by artist Kristen Visbal, was installed by State Street Global Advisors (the investment management division of State Street Corporation, and the world’s third-largest asset manager) right in front of the financial center’s famous Charging Bull statue.

State Street Global Advisors created the temporary installation as a way to bring attention to the persistent problem of gender inequality on Wall Street. Aside from the statue, State Street is also sending a letter to 3,500 companies, asking them to add more women to their boards, as one in four top-tier investment boardrooms don’t currently have a single female executive as a member.

“A key contributor to effective independent board leadership is diversity of thought, which requires directors with different skills, backgrounds, and expertise,” said State Street president Ronald P. O’Hanley in a statement. “Today we are calling on companies to take concrete steps to increase gender diversity on their boards and have issued clear guidance to help them begin to take action.”

The statue was initially set to face off with the bronze bull for a month, but after a rush of support and online petitions, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in a statement released on Twitter that the sculpture will remain where it is until February of 2018, "asserting herself and affirming her strength even after her temporary permit expires." Fingers crossed that they’ll find a way to make the little girl—and a woman’s place in Wall Street boardrooms—a permanent fixture.