Women of Wall Street

Just Over 21 years ago, about the time when those now coming of legal drinking age were born, there was not a single woman member on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Muriel Siebert, among others, thought that was ridiculous, but Mickie, as she is known, believes in action rather than complaint. She had the half-million dollars; she demanded a seat. The old fogeys of the exchange, including chairman Gus Levy, thought hers was an idea only slightly less subversive than turning the entire operation over to the Bolsheviks. "We don't want her," Levy told an investment banker who had had the temerity to recommend her. And then Levy came up with the excuse that became an industrywide cause célèbre: "We have no ladies' room on the floor."

"I've never had so many people worry about my toilet habits," Mickie tells me, adding that all ten of the trading members she asked to sponsor her turned her down. Finally, she found sponsors "upstairs" (away from the trading floor) and, promising to take responsibility for her own bladder, was allowed to buy a seat in December 1967. The male--female ratio became 1365 to 1.

As Mickie Siebert's story suggests, Wall Street a generation ago was about as chauvinistic as any institution in the United States. While men genially spread canards about how women controlled most of the money anyhow, male executives systematically excluded women from any positions of real power. It would be nice to be able to report that Wall Street, two decades later, is a prettier place. However, as anyone who has surveyed the recent scandals (text continued on page 152)Wall Street(continued from page 112) and financial carnage can testify, that would be going a bit too far. But the women of Wall Street are now in Act III of an ongoing drama.

Act I saw the first brave pioneers appear on the scene. When Mary Wrenn, of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, was being allowed in the early Sixties actually to present her own opinions as a drug analyst, the event was considered so newsworthy that it was covered in a front-page article in the financial section of The New York Times. Julia Walsh tells me that when, in 1972, she became the first woman member of the American Stock Exchange elected to its board of governors, it was viewed as such an amazing historical breakthrough that "I received more flowers than at any other time of my life."

But if, in the Sixties, the prominent women in Wall Street could be counted easily on two hands (with a couple of fingers left over for pointing shame), a battalion of high heels started kicking down the mahogany doors in the Seventies. Act II, though, was not without its own bizarre conflicts.

Elizabeth Dater, now a crack managing director of Warburg, Pincus Counselors, tells me that 15 years ago, as a junior analyst, she inadvertently created a scene while accompanying an aerospace analyst to a major defense plant in the Midwest. "An extremely nervous plant manager made me put on a trench coat seven sizes too big," she recalls, "so the workers wouldn't be distracted by the sight of a genuine woman. I was given the impression that that would have been the end of national defense."

Sometimes it was impossible to hide the women's gender, which to some men apparently was even more disconcerting. Gail Dudack, who represented the triple curiosity of being young, female and a technical market analyst, remembers the luncheon presentation she gave about ten years ago at a private club in San Francisco: "As I entered the front door, the manager rushed up to explain that it was a club for men only. After being told that I was the speaker, he guided me to the service elevator, which took me directly to the private room for our talk. The rest of the men took the guest elevators. Some of them were very embarrassed; others thought it was the best joke of the year."

That final comment illustrates a theme that ran through many of the talks I have had on this subject with the women of Wall Street; somehow, they are not as amused as most males by the passing slights women have encountered in asserting their right to a piece of the action. Which takes us logically to Act III, today's Wall Street scene, and the question--hotly debated--of whether women have truly changed the character of the financial markets.

Aesthetically, there can be no doubt. It's nice to have a woman around the brokerage house. Smart women have understood and taken advantage of this. As Susan Skinner, a top-notch researcher who has worked for four firms, candidly acknowledges, "The plus of being the only female to cover bank stocks--not cosmetics or apparel--was that I was remembered ... not another guy in a gray suit. It meant I had to be better prepared, but at least I was remembered."

The question of physical attractiveness is more delicate, but Skinner finds (what else?) a double standard. "Wall Street is show business," she admits. "When one markets, one is always successful if one is attractive. However, the key difference--not just applicable to Wall Street--is that the attractiveness ratings are not so generous for women. Men are 'stocky,' women are 'fat.' ... A woman has to be more attractive, more articulate and more intelligent to make it in Wall Street."

Exterior appeal is more important on the marketing side, of course: What rational human being cares about the sex of the person who runs money profitably? But women are still more often found in "staff" than in "line" functions; Skinner, now director of research and strategist for S. G. Warborg and Co., says, "Somehow, women analysts are OK, but find me more than a handful of women portfolio managers and I'll buy you a case of champagne."

Women remain similarly sparse in the heat of the action on the trading floor. The New York Stock Exchange's 1366 members now include 69 women, but only 24 work on the floor. And while about 25 percent of Wall Street executives are now female, Mickie Siebert insists that "it hasn't changed that much--you have no women on the executive committees of most firms, few women specialists [making the markets in individual stocks], and most of the women who have become members don't actually own their own seats."

Other women are more content with the script of Act III: Beth Dater believes that Wall Street today has become "one of the most liberated businesses in America," and Bernadette Murphy, who this past year became only the second woman to head the prestigious Financial Analysts Federation (formed in 1947), told me flatly that Wall Street has lately become "an excellent industry for women. If you can impact the bottom line of a company in a positive way, you are an asset and you will be compensated for your efforts. While titles may still be in short supply, financial compensation makes the disadvantage worth while. Money is power--eventually."

In Wall Street, in short, the shape of the bottom ultimately becomes less important than the numbers on the bottom line. And even some women who remain surly about the petty pace of progress admit that it's difficult to engender much public sympathy for a person who is making $250,000 a year. Indeed, the very slowness of promotions in some areas--such as top-level deal making--may have saved women from being involved in the worst of the insider-trading scandals. But women are moving steadily into power positions; by now, three firms have carried the names of women: Muriel Siebert, Laura Sloate (who bears the additional handicap of being blind) and Julia Walsh. Julia, in fact, adopted my favorite title in all of American finance: chairman (not chairwoman or chairperson or chair) of Julia M. Walsh & Sons. Nobody ever had to explain to Julia where the power lies, or how to get it.

The persistent question has been how ordinary women could do in Wall Street: whether they had the same chance as mediocre men. In the early years of Wall Street Week, we went out of our way to present women, because they were such rarities; for some years, that has not been necessary, because enough competent females now deserve an invitation strictly on their professional merits. Similarly, in a book published in 1974, I wrote that if you were able even to discover a woman "who has been tough and smart enough to buck the established order, chances are you might be on to an exceptional broker."

Wall Street's slowness in accepting women was particularly foolish for another reason. The simple fact--hidden as well as possible by generations of pompous males--is that those women, professional or amateur, who have dared to try their hand at investing have generally done better at it than their fathers, husbands, lovers and sons. The National Association of Investors Corporations routinely finds that the all-women's clubs do best. There are a number of possible reasons for this, but I think the most important is that women get early training in skepticism. By the time the average female is 14, she has learned to look through the pitch for the motive. It is a trait that can be as helpful in finance as in other human activities.

In the end, let us never forget what bright women have always known: Money is sexy. If it cannot buy happiness, at least it can make misery more entertaining. Women understand money for what it is: not as an extension of one's masculinity, as wild risk-takers sometimes mistakenly assume, but as the stuff with which you buy things, including security. If women have thus been drawn a bit more to value than to the passing get-rich-quick schemes that so often end on the rocks, they have made a contribution that goes beyond civilizing Wall Street to increasing the wealth of the nation. As it becomes ever less surprising to find them in the board rooms, the profit is one worth contemplating--in every way.

South Richmond Securities

Position: Stockbroker ("also known as dialing for dollars-bring your own caffeine").

Hottest Stock Tip: Legend Foods (O.T.C.): was four cents in early 1988; about 12 cents in early 1989.

Lisandra Trujillo

Current Status: Left job in November 1988; now a full-time finance student.

Wall Street High: "So many men...."

Wall Street Low: "So little time."

Outstanding Assets: 36-24-36.

Franklin Consolidated Mining

Position: Office manager and shareholder liaison.

Wall Street Salary: $38,000, plus bonus.

Cheryl Petersen

Current Status: Laid off in January 1989; now attending New York Institute of Finance.

Ambition: To acquire a securities broker's license.

Outstanding Assets: 36-25-36.

Shearson Lehman Hutton

Position: Financial consultant, account executive.

Current Status: Left company in August 1988; now a sales specialist for a Fortune 500 firm and heading for law school in the fall.

Holly S. Meder

Wall Street High: "Being one of the few women in the business who succeeded."

Wall Street Low: "Not being able to make everyone rich."

Outstanding Assets: 38-25-35-1/2

Stuart-James

Position: Administrative assistant and office "top girl."

Biggest Killing: Bringing in a $3,500,000 account and collecting commissions on the profits.

Robin Mormelo

Current Status: Left the company two months after her Playboy shoot; entered Mrs. New Jersey pageant.

Wall Street High: "Being discovered by Playboy for this pictorial."

Wall Street Low: "Being chased in and out of the elevators by all of the brokers."

Outstanding Assets: 35-24-35.

Paine Webber

Position: Stockbroker and investment executive.

Yearly Income: Confidential.

Biggest Killing: While at another firm, found stock at one dollar; sold it at $10.50 within six months.

N Denise Uzan

Ambition: "To work in mergers and acquisitions, find Prince Charming and merge with him."

Wall Street High: "Standing out in what's virtually a man's world."

Wall Street Low: "Trying to remain feminine while dealing with sharks."

Outstanding Assets: 36-21-34.

Drexel Burnham Lambert

Position: Executive assistant, corporate-bond research department.

Ambition: To become a stockbroker.

Current Status: Laid off in April due to cutbacks; now looking for work.

Shari Fierman

Wall Street High: "Taking in the lunchtime action at the nearby South Street Seaport."

Wall Street Low: "Guys on the exchange who are intimidated by my height" (5' 10-1/2).

Outstanding Assets: 36-25-36-1/2.

Drexel Burnham Lambert

Position: Executive assistant, mortgage-backed securities.

Biggest Killing: Received $10,000 Christmas bonus for doing job well; while at another firm, assisted in the Macmillan takeover.

Laura King

Current Status: Left in May 1988 to join an investment-banking firm.

Wall Street High: "All those sexy men."

Wall Street Low: "Taking the subway "

Outstanding Assets: 36-26-36.

Greentree Securities

Position: Stockbroker, specializing in low-priced, high-risk stocks.

Hottest Investment Tip: Playing index options during times of high market volatility

Lisa Knapp

Current Status: Left job in 1988 when firm folded; now works for rigging company.

Wall Street High: "The idea that people would actually give me their money to invest because they liked the sound of my voice."

Wall Street Low: "Couldn't stand taking money from people who weren't able to swing it financially"

Outstanding Assets: 32-24-32.

Prudential-Bache Securities

Position: Sales assistant (previously a broker at Blinder-Robinson)

Biggest Killing: Bought Sears for a client at $33 per share; watched it climb to $46 within two months.

Kimberly Ann Clark

Current Status: Left job in January to travel; returned to it May first.

Ambition: To live in a beach house, drive a Testarossa and be a financial success.

Wall Street High: "That professional feeling."

Wall Street Low: "Clients who don't want to invest with a twenty-four-year-old."

Outstanding Assets: 36-22-34.