To celebrate International Women's Day there's now a fearless girl facing Wall Street's famous bull

Ahead of International Women’s Day, a statue of a defiant little girl was placed in front of Wall Street’s famous Charging Bull statue in a bid to challenge the traditionally male environment in the finance industry.

The bronze statue features a pony-tailed girl of around ten-ish with her hands on her hips and her chin held high as she stares down the huge bull. A circular plaque lays at her feet with the inscription, “Know the power of women in leadership/she makes a difference.”

It was placed on Tuesday morning by asset manager State Street Global as part of a campaign to increase gender diversity in Wall Street’s traditionally male-dominated environment and call on the industry to increase the number of women on corporate boards.

The company hopes ‘The Fearless Girl’ will be a symbol of the firm’s desire to encourage women to become recognised leaders in the field.

“We believe good corporate governance is a function of strong, effective and independent board leadership,” Ron O’Hanley, the company’s president and CEO said in a statement.

“A key contributor to effective independent board leadership is diversity of thought, which requires directors with different skills, backgrounds and expertise. Today, we are calling on companies to take concrete steps to increase gender diversity on their boards and have issued clear guidance to help them begin to take action.”

According to research by European Women on Boards (EWoB), women occupy less than a quarter of all UK board positions. While a Government-backed report from Lord Mervyn Davies last year suggested that at least a third of UK boardroom positions should be held by women by the end of the decade.

Kristen Visbal, the artist who sculpted ‘The Fearless Girl’ told the Wall Street Journal that she hoped the statue would become a symbol of hope for women working in the industry.

“Wall Street is a traditionally male environment and it says, ‘Hey, we’re here,’” she said “To me, it says a woman can be delicate and petite, but strong.”

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