December 28, 1967. A day that will live in financial history—and not just because someone managed to trade with a straight face while wearing a powder-blue suit. That was the day Muriel Siebert, a.k.a. “Mickie,” became the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Muriel waltzed into Wall Street’s ultimate boys’ club and called dibs on the biggest recliner in the room.
Picture this: it’s the 1960s. The Beatles are singing about love, everyone’s experimenting with fondue, and the New York Stock Exchange is so male-dominated it might as well have been called the Old Boys’ Exchange. Muriel, a Cleveland-born dynamo with a used car, $500, and a take-no-prisoners attitude, decided she’d had enough of earning 60 cents to a man’s dollar. (And to add insult to injury, those 60 cents were probably being spent on ugly ties.)
So, she set her sights on the ultimate prize: a seat on the NYSE. But this wasn’t just a matter of showing up and saying, “Hi, I’m Muriel. Where do I sign?” Oh no. This was an uphill battle, and the hill was covered in metaphorical banana peels. First, she needed sponsorship, so she knocked on the doors of ten investors. Nine of them basically said, “Thanks, but we prefer our stockbrokers in suits, ties, and Adam’s apples.”
Then came the money. Oh, the money. The seat cost $445,000—about $4 million in today’s dollars—and the NYSE required her to secure a bank loan for $300,000 before approving her application. But the banks refused to commit without the NYSE’s approval. Classic chicken-and-egg situation, only instead of a farmyard drama, it was the plot of “Catch-22: Wall Street Edition.”
Did Muriel give up? Ha! Not a chance. She outsmarted the system, secured the funding, and on December 28, she officially joined the NYSE. That’s right—1,365 men and one woman. The ultimate game of financial musical chairs, and Muriel won her seat.
But wait, there’s more! Two years later, she founded her own firm, Muriel Siebert & Co., and became the first woman to run a NYSE member firm. Then, in 1977, she was appointed New York State’s first female Superintendent of Banks. And during her tenure? Not a single bank failed. That’s right—while others were playing fast and loose with the economy, Muriel was essentially the financial world’s Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way.
Fast-forward to today, and let’s just say Wall Street still has some explaining to do. Sure, women have made strides, but only 24% of senior roles in finance are held by women. That’s up from 20% in 2020, which is progress if you squint really hard and maybe drink a martini first.
Muriel’s story isn’t just inspiring—it’s a call to action. She once said, “American business will find that women executives can be a strong competitive weapon.” Translation: If you’re not hiring women, you’re leaving money on the table.
So let’s raise a glass—or a calculator—to Muriel Siebert: the woman who turned Wall Street’s glass ceiling into a glass elevator. She didn’t just break barriers; she shattered them, glued them back together, and said, “Here, let me show you how it’s done.” Cheers, Muriel. You were a total badass.
