Thursday, April 19, 2018 | 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
Long overlooked in histories of finance, women played an essential role in areas such as banking and the stock market during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yet their presence sparked ongoing controversy. Hetty Green's golden touch brought her millions, but she outraged critics with her rejection of domesticity. Progressives like Victoria Woodhull, meanwhile, saw financial acumen as more important for women than the vote. George Robb's pioneering study sheds a light on the financial methods, accomplishments and careers of three generations of women.
Plumbing sources from stock brokers' ledgers to media coverage, Robb reveals the many ways women invested their capital while exploring their differing sources of information, approaches to finance, interactions with markets and levels of expertise. He also rediscovers the forgotten women bankers, brokers and speculators who blazed new trails–and sparked public outcries over women's unsuitability for the predatory rough-and-tumble of market capitalism. Entertaining and vivid with details, Ladies of the Ticker: Women and Wall Street from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression sheds light on the trailblazers who transformed Wall Street into a place for women's work.
About the Author
George Robb is a professor of history at William Paterson University. In addition to Ladies of the Ticker, he is the author of White-Collar Crime in Modern England: Financial Fraud and Business Morality, 1845-1929 and British Culture and the First World War.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.