Muriel Siebert

Muriel “Mickie” Siebert was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967, 175 years after the exchange was founded. 

This was no small feat.

From the get-go, the deck was stacked against her. She needed a seatholder to sponsor her application. Nine turned her down before the tenth came through.

The exchange then threw up another roadblock.

It wouldn’t consider her application until she had a letter from a bank willing to lend her $300,000 of the $445,000 cost of the seat ($4,000,000 in today’s dollars). But no bank would lend her the money unless the exchange would grant her a seat. It took two years before she talked Chase Manhattan bank into lending her the money.

It would take another 10 years for another woman to break into the boys’ club.

In ’75 Siebert was appointed head of the New York State banking commission, and during her 4-year term, no NY bank failed. Her smarts, shrewdness, willingness to make bold and unpopular moves, as well as her powers of persuasion, meant that the New York banking system survived a rough patch for the industry. A recession, rapidly rising rates, and changed regulatory landscape proved fatal for many banks across the U.S.

She was consciously single, choosing career over family, and was a generous philanthropist dedicated to women’s economic freedom.