A new statue of a resolute young girl now faces Wall Street's famous Charging Bull, erected for International Women's Day to highlight the scarcity of women on the boards of the largest US corporations.
Investment giant State Street Global Advisors had the statue created to push companies to increase the number of female directors.
Artist Kristen Visbal's Fearless Girl drew both tourists who came to pose for pictures with the bull and workers arriving at their jobs in the Wall Street area.
The girl, sculpted in bronze, appears to be staring down the bronze bull, her hands firmly planted on her waist. Her head is held high, with a ponytail that looks like it is swinging.
"Know the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference," a plaque at her feet said.
State Street's deputy global chief investment officer Lori Heinel said: "As a steward of nearly $US2.5 trillion ($3.3 trillion) of assets, we want to engage with boards and management around issues that we think will drive core results."
"And what you find repeatedly is having more diverse boards and more diverse senior management will actually drive better results for companies."
Twenty-five per cent of the Russell 3000 — an index of the nation's largest companies — have no women on their boards, according to State Street, which manages many of their assets.
Nearly 60 per cent have fewer than 15 per cent of female directors.
Ms Heinel said State Street would contact those companies, urging them to change the composition of their leadership.
She said the financial giant also was working with companies in Australia and the United Kingdom to urge them to pursue diversity in board membership.
Negotiations underway for girl to remain
The mammoth bronze bull was a "guerrilla art" act, dropped in the middle of the night in Bowling Green Park in 1989 without permission by an artist who created it as a symbol of Americans' survival energy in the face of the 1987 stock market crash.
The city gave its permission for the bull to remain.
This week, McCann New York, a top advertising agency, dropped off the statue of the girl — with a city permit for at least a week.
Negotiations are underway for the piece to remain there longer.
Why choose the Charging Bull as the site to place the girl?
"We really wanted the bull to have a partner, and a partner that we thought was worthy of him," Ms Heinel said.
"And so we got a very determined young woman who is fearless and is willing to drive the change that we believe we need."
AP
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