She-Wolves

July 22, 2024
Bren (The Barbizon), a gender studies professor at Vassar College, serves up an enthralling chronicle of how the first generation of women to work in New York City’s financial sector fought for equality. She explains that in the 1960s, New York financial firms staunchly resisted hiring women (one manager told a female applicant, “Why are you here? We’d never hire a woman”). The women’s movement helped erode these barriers, but those who broke through endured almost uniformly cruel treatment. (Bren notes that Alice Jarcho, who became the first woman broker on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1976, regularly found mayonnaise-filled condoms left on her desk.) Still, women invented cunning strategies to get ahead. For example, Barbara Moakler, who joined Lehman Brothers in the early 1980s, convinced her chauvinist coworkers she had a boyfriend at Goldman Sachs so that her colleagues, hoping to do business with him, would treat her with respect. Though the tales of sexism outrage, what sticks with readers will be the resourcefulness and resilience of Bren’s subjects (when Doreen Mogavero was unable to find a job that paid her a fair salary in the late 1980s, she founded a brokerage that became the “first and only women-run NYSE-member firm”). It’s a sharp look at the difficulties women faced breaking up Wall Street’s boys club. Photos.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
A significant study of the trailblazing women who broke through the Wall Street barrier. In this illuminating account of a collection of important women in the financial industry, Bren, author ofThe Barbizon, focuses primarily on Wall Street from the 1960s to the present day, noting how the finance sector retained its sexist culture even as American society was changing around it. During this era, the first generation of women worked as secretaries and typists, laying the foundations for the next wave of women who had graduated from business schools. They took jobs as researchers and analysts, but most found themselves locked out of the big-money trading jobs in the male-dominated industry. Bren tracks the careers of several women who, through ability and persistence, managed to move up. Still, it was a constant battle against tokenism, excuses, and unapologetic sexism, and women found themselves working twice as hard for half the recognition. Legislation prohibited discrimination in hiring and promotion, but the more insidious problem was the old-boy networks, fueled by boozy lunches and post-work outings to strip clubs. "The female pioneers of Wall Street...pushed into uncharted territory not knowing what awaited them there other than men, lots of men, few of whom were going to roll out a welcome mat." Nevertheless, progress continued, and some women went on to establish their own trading firms. Throughout this fascinating business and cultural history, Bren fleshes out the story with instructive anecdotes, and she provides a series of biographical sketches in an appendix. While the situation has markedly improved, there are still far too few women in positions of power and leadership in the finance industry. We might hope that Bren returns to the subject in another decade or two for a further assessment. Writing with flair and passion, Bren salutes the courage and talent of true groundbreakers.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2024
If Wall Street is a place of many secrets, Bren (The Barbizon, 2021) is here to unlock them on behalf of countless women finance pioneers--aka She-Wolves--and women looking for careers in the Goldman Sachses of the world. The story of the She-Wolves parallels Wall Street's history, from Jane Larkin, one of the first Wall Street research analysts and partners, to the late, well-known Muriel Siebert, who bought a seat on the NYSE--and prospered, to women involved in the debacle of Boesky and Milken and the tragedy of 9/11. Throughout the narrative, irreverence and humor spice Bren's accounts: a woman who, on her first day on the job, received a prank pizza with condoms swapped for pepperoni; tales of second and third marriages; the contrasting cultures of Jewish versus Gentile firms. Determination is embedded in every page (such as the Merrill Lynch telephone clerk who rose to be managing director), as are stories of discrimination, pay inequity, and outright harassment. Applause for a searingly honest, detailed history of women working in American finance.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.