She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street

In 1967, Muriel Siebert stepped onto the testosterone-fueled trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange as its first female member. In addition to the inherent challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, she faced a more pressing issue: there was no women's restroom on the seventh floor of the exchange where the members' luncheon club was located. Finding this unacceptable, Siebert successfully lobbied for a women’s restroom to be built by warning the exchange’s chairman that she would arrange to have a portable toilet delivered (New York Times). Fifty-seven years later, women are still making waves and breaking barriers in the world of finance, proving that Wall Street's "wolves" aren't always wearing suits and ties.

On Thursday, November 21, join the Downtown Alliance and Siebert Financial for an extraordinary evening with the women who changed Wall Street's landscape. Award-winning historian and author Paulina Bren will discuss her groundbreaking book "She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street" alongside three pioneering leaders featured in its pages. Siebert Financial chief product officer Raakhee Miller will moderate this powerful conversation about breaking barriers in finance.

You’ll hear from:

• Paulina Bren, historian and writer; professor at Vassar College
• Jolyne Caruso-FitzGerald, founder, Eriu Advisors and former CEO of the Alberleen Group
• Lillian Lambert, entrepreneur and first African-American woman to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School
• Doreen Mogavero, co-founder of Mogavero Lee and the first woman to own and operate a NYSE member firm
• Raakhee Miller, Chief Product Officer at Siebert Financial

Our panelists will explore key themes from the book, including:

• The evolution of women's roles in finance from the 19th century to present
• Breaking through the "glass ceiling" in major financial institutions
• The impact of legislation like the Civil Rights Act on Wall Street culture
• Strategies for building influence and creating change from within
• The ongoing challenges and opportunities for women in finance today

The discussion will be followed by a reception and light refreshments. You'll also have the opportunity to purchase a copy of "She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street" courtesy of McNally Jackson Books.

Whether you work in finance or just love downtown New York City history, you won’t want to miss this exciting evening of compelling stories, frank discussion and networking opportunities.

Paulina Bren is a writer and award-winning historian who teaches at Vassar College on the Pittsburgh Endowment Chair in the Humanities, where she also directs the Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Program.  Her previous book, the best-selling The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and has been widely translated.  Her new book, She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street, called “enthralling” by Publisher’s Weekly, was named The Washington Post’s, Town & Country’s and Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books for Fall 2024, a Next Big Idea Club Must-Read, and UntappedNewYork’s 100 Best Books about New York of all time.  She-Wolves is in development with Mark Gordon Pictures.  Born in the former Czechoslovakia, Paulina grew up in the U.K. and the U.S., receiving her B.A. from Wesleyan University, her M.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle, and her PhD from New York University. Before switching to narrative non-fiction, she was a well-known scholar of everyday life and communism behind the Iron Curtain, starting with her groundbreaking book, The Greengrocer and His TV, followed by the collected volume of essays, Communism Unwrapped.

Jolyne Caruso-FitzGerald’s career has spanned global capital markets, alternative asset management and private wealth management, serving in leadership roles at major investment banks and boutique firms. Jolyne most recently served as divisional vice chair of Global Wealth Management at UBS. Since leaving UBS, she founded Eriu Advisors, a strategic advisory firm working with female founders and global family offices.

Prior to joining UBS, Jolyne founded and for 9 years led The Alberleen Group, a boutique investment banking and advisory firm. She previously worked as global head of Absolute Return Strategies at Lehman Brothers and served on the firm's management committee. Prior to Lehman, Jolyne was ​co-founder and president of Andor Capital Management, a $7.0 billion equity long/short hedge fund. From 1992 to 2001, she was head of Equities Americas at JP Morgan and was chairman of JP Morgan Securities. She began her career in institutional equities at Bear Stearns.

Jolyne earned a B.A. with honors from Barnard College, Columbia University, and is chair emerita of Barnard’s board of trustees. She currently serves on the advisory council of Columbia University’s Entrepreneurship program, Barnard College’s investment committee and is chair of the board of Align Impact, an impact focused registered investment advisor.  

Lillian Lambert grew up on a small farm in rural Virginia, the youngest of 7 children.  After high school, her mom desperately wanted me to go to college but  there was no money for college. Her goal was to get off the farm and become a secretary.  She ventured to New York city where she floundered for two years before moving to DC where she floundered another two years.  Finally,  she enrolled in Howard University at the age of 22 and her life changed. There she met Professor H. Naylor Fitzhugh who became her mentor and encouraged her to attend Harvard Business School. She followed his advice enrolling during the tumultuous 1960’s. In 1969 she became the first African American woman to receive an MBA from Harvard. 

When Lillian arrived at HBS  in Sept. 1967, she saw no Black people. The total student body of 1600 included 9 blacks - 8 men and her. A few weeks went by before she met the 8 men.  To make matters worse, the 36 women students could not live in the dormitories on the Business School campus.. They had to live at the Radcliffe Graduate dorm and walk the half mile to class. Men, on the other hand, could walk through the underground tunnels during inclement weather.

After two years of grueling class work, cold winters, no social life and few friends, she discovered that  corporations were not anxious to hire women. After graduation, she had 4 jobs over a 6-year period before deciding to go the entrepreneurial route. In 1976, when few women were starting businesses, she started a company in her garage with $4,000. The company  grew into a $20 million dollar enterprise employing 1,200 employees.

Her life's journey  demanded she draw on her inner resources as she confronted racism, sexism and a series of menial, dead-end jobs. Her journey led her to the ivory tower and the world of entrepreneurship.  She fought her way through a thorny political and social landscape for blacks and women. She testified before Congress for passage of HR5050 Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988.

Learn more about her : www.lillianlincolnlambert.com

Raakhee Miller is the current Chief Product Officer of Siebert Financial. Over the last 25+ years, Raakhee has held multiple successful leadership positions at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Macquarie and tech giants FIS and Broadridge. She also served as Chief Product Officer at Drivewealth, a B2B tech unicorn powering embedded investing experiences on 100+ brands, globally.

Doreen Mogavero started her financial career on May 1,1975 as a teletype operator on the American Stock Exchange. Shortly after arriving on the floor she went to work for a new firm by the name of Ivan F. Boesky and Co. In 1979, Doreen became a founding member of The New York Futures Exchange, trading bonds, bills and currencies for Ivan Boesky. In 1980, an opportunity arose on the New York Stock Exchange for Ivan to hire another floor broker and he gave the position to Doreen, making her one of the original ten women to hold a regular trading job and membership/seat on the NYSE.

By 1989, Ivan F. Boesky and Co. was defunct. Ivan himself was in J*il for insider trading and Doreen was out of a job. After a brief stint with a small firm Doreen decided it was time to go on her own and on May 1, 1989, in partnership with Jennifer Lee, Mogavero Lee was born. Over the next 25 years, Doreen and Jennifer built the first and only NYSE broker dealer/member firm wholly owned and operated by women. 

In 1996 Doreen purchased her seat on the floor becoming the third woman to buy her seat with the money she earned herself working on the trading floor. 

In 1981 Doreen was the second woman to become part of the NYSE policing hierarchy when she was made a Floor Official, and in 2001 Doreen became the first woman from the floor to be appointed to a board position. During her tenure on the New York Board of Executives, Doreen was an integral part of creating and shaping the new hybrid market which would bring the manual market into the new age of technology. Doreen was also the first woman to chair the prestigious Market Performance Committee and served on the Regulation Listing and Standard Committee.

Doreen closed Mogavero Lee in 2014 and completely retired as a member from the NYSE in 2016.

Host or Publisher Alliance for Downtown New York