The Most Influential Women 

In Wall Street History

 

Sallie Krawcheck

Wall Street has a long lineage of male power players, but it also has a history of key women figures who have made a huge impact in the financial world.
Some of these women have made strides by overcoming gender discrimination, while others are the first to hold executive roles.

This week, Kristin Aguilera, the deputy director of the Museum of American Finance and the editor of Financial History magazine, has a fascinating piece in Bloomberg about the history of women a few of these on Wall Street and the progress they made.
 

We've compiled a list of the ten most influential women on Wall Street from both the past and the present.

Abigail Adams is the earliest documented female investor in the U.S.

Abigail Adams (1744-1818), the wife of John Adams and the First Lady of the United States from 1797 to 1801, is one of the earliest documented female investors in U.S. history, according to Aguilera's report.
A book written by Woody Holton reveals that Abigail was a very successful bond speculator.
Like many other families during the Revolutionary War, John spent a great deal of time away from his wife.  So he asked her to manage his finances and the family farm. 

In 1783, John advised Abigail to invest in farm land, according to Holton.  However, Abigail decided to ignore her husband's advice and instead invested in U.S. government bonds, which brought her far greater returns. 

Victoria Woodhull and her sister opened the first female-owned brokerage on Wall Street.

Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Clafin

Victoria Woodhull (1883-1927), who became the first female candidate to run for President of the United States, and her sister Tennessee Clafin (1845 to 1923) opened the first female-owned brokerage firm on Wall Street in 1970.
What's interesting is the sisters had custom-made business dresses designed to hide their femininity so they would blend in with the male dominated world of finance, according to Aguilera's report. 

Despite trying to blend in with their male counterparts, the women were the subject of a spate of sexualized headlines such as "Wall Street Aroused" in the New York Times. 






Hetty Green, who was nicknamed "The Witch of Wall Street," was Wall Street's first female tycoon.

When Hetty Green (1834 to 1916) was a young child she used to read the financial newspaper to her father. After her father died, she ended up inheriting the family's vast fortune and managed her own money.
Green, who use to wear dingy dresses and a veil to conceal her identity, was nicknamed the "Witch of Wall Street" because of her attire. 

She had a reputation for being miserly, investing conservatively, squirreling away cash, and never borrowing money -- only loaning it. She even loaned New York City $1 million in 1898 when it was broke. 

She was so stingy that she was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Greatest Miser.”

Isabel Benham was a well-respected railroad bond analyst who began her career in the 1930s.

Isabel Benham (1909 to Present), who turned 102 this year, was an extremely accomplished railroad bond analyst on Wall Street. 

According to Aguilera's post in Bloomberg, Behnam used to sign her research reports "I. Hamilton Benham" because she thought readers would take them more seriously if they didn't recognize they were written by a woman. 

Well, they did take her seriously and she eventually revealed the fact that she was a woman.  Benham became known as one of the analysts for the railroad industry.

Muriel "Mickie" Siebert, who is known as the "First Woman of Finance," was the first woman to purchase a seat on the NYSE.

Muriel "Mickie" Siebert (1932-Present) was the first woman to purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in December 1967. And that was not an easy task. From Bloomberg:

According to Siebert, her NYSE member badge was the most expensive piece of jewelry she ever bought (at $445,000), and it was also the hardest earned. She had been turned down by nine prospective sponsors before finding the two she needed to endorse her application.

After gaining membership, Siebert became the target of headlines such as "Skirt Invades Exchange" and "Powder Puff on Wall Street," according to Aguilera.

Today she is president of her namesake firm Muriel Siebert & Co. Inc.

Abby Joseph Cohen is known for predicting the bull market in the 1990s.

Abby Joseph Cohen (1952 to Present) currently serves as the senior U.S. investment strategist at Goldman Sachs and before that the was the bank's chief investment strategist. 

Cohen began her career as an economist for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.  She joined Goldman Sachs in 1990.  

She gained notoriety for predicting the bull market in the 1990s.

Ann Kaplan leads an investment and wealth management membership organization for women.

Ann Kaplan has served as the director of Signature Bank since 2004.  She is also the chair of Circle Financial Group, an investment and wealth management membership organization that advises women. 
Her previous experience includes working at Goldman Sachs as a general partner and later a managing director after the bank went public.  While at Goldman, she spent 23 years in the fixed income division and headed the municipal bond department.

Nancy Peretsman is Oprah's Winfrey's investment banker.

Nancy Peretsman (1954 to Present) is currently a managing director at boutique investment bank Allen & Company.  She's been working there since 1995.  

Her previous experience on Wall Street includes working at Salomon Brothers, where she lead the worldwide media investment banking business as a managing director. 

During her banking career, she's worked with clients such as Barry Diller, Rupert Murdoch, Gerry Leybourne, Oprah Winfrey and Eric Schmidt, according to CityFile.

Rosemary McFadden was the first woman to serve as president of any U.S.-based stock or futures exchange.

Rosemary McFadden served as the president of the New York Mercantile Exchange and she's currently the deputy mayor of economic development in Jersey City, New Jersey.
McFadden began her career at the NYMEX as a staff attorney.  After four years, she climbed the ranks to the role of of president and chief operating officer at the U.S.-based futures exchange.
She was the first woman to serve as president of any U.S.-based stock or futures exchange, according to Yahoo! Voices.

Sallie Krawcheck has held many executive roles on Wall Street and is reportedly plotting her comeback.

Sallie Krawcheck (1965 to Present), the former head of global wealth management at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, was unceremoniously ousted from the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank earlier this fall. However, that's not to say she hasn't achieved a lot in her Wall Street career.  What's more is the word is she's plotting a comeback to the finance world very soon. 

Krawcheck began her Wall Street career in 1987 at Salomon Brothers just before the market crash that year. She later became the CEO of Sanford Bernstein and eventually moved to Citi to run the bank's Smith Barney unit.  She was named the CFO of Citi and then the head of the bank's wealth management business before moving to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

During her career, she even became the subject of a cover story for Fortune for an article called "In Search Of The Last Honest Analyst." She was named Fortune magazine’s "Most Powerful Women" in business between 2002 and 2009.  In 2002, she was recognized as one of Time magazine’s “Global Business Influential." In 2003, Fortune magazine named her the “Most Influential Person Under the Age of 40.” Forbes magazine listed her as No. 6 for the "World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in 2006.  She was honored with CNBC's "Business Leader of the Future Award" in 2007.  In 2009, U.S. Banker ranked her first on its list of "25 Women to Watch."