Whereas before she faced the Wall Street bull, she now faces what is considered the temple of global capitalism.
Nearly 200 people attended a brief ceremony in the morning to mark his installation in front of the imposing building of the New York Stock Exchange. A consecration for this statue appeared in the New York financial district for International Women’s Day in March 2017.
Quickly, the statue of a young girl with steel eyes, hands on her hips and a blowing ponytail became a tourist attraction and a social media star.
The sculpture “The Fearless Girl” will remain on Wall Street until February 2018, said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Photo : AFP / Eduardo Munoz Alvarez
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This bronze statue had been erected furtively and faced another sculpture, that of the Charging Bull (charging bull) which symbolizes “the strength and power of the American people”. Sculptor Arturo Di Modica installed it in December 1989. It was an operation funded by asset management firm State Street Global Advisors to draw attention to the lack of women on boards. .
The statue was not to remain in place for more than a week, especially since the designer of the bull, erected in 1989 to symbolize the recovery of Wall Street, had denounced what he considered to be a misuse of his work.
Except that the statue’s immediate popularity and a petition convinced New York City to keep it.
“In one image, she says what activists can take pages and pages to argue,” said Carolyn Maloney, Democratic Representative to Congress at the ceremony Monday. Bold, full of confidence and hope, she has become a central part of the movement for women’s equality, ”she added.
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Fearless Girl statue relocated to New York
Photo : Getty Images / Drew Angerer
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” We see [en elle] our daughters, our mothers, our nieces […] She represents potential, progress and hope, but also all the women who fought for equality before us, ”said Betty Liu, vice president of the New York Stock Exchange.
This financial institution placed a woman at its head for the first time in May, in the person of Stacey Cunningham.
The fearless girl now has worldwide fame. A replica was briefly installed in November in Dublin, and another could be installed in March in London.
State Street officials are delighted that she has already helped increase the presence of women on boards.
By the end of September, 301 companies, including 215 in the United States, had added at least one woman to their board of directors since 2017, bringing the share of large listed companies without directors down to 16%, against 24% at the end of 2016, indicated its president, Cyrus Taraporevala. “It hasn’t just changed the way we invest, it has changed the way we see the world,” he said.
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