Muriel Siebert on being the first women to buy a seat on the NYSE.

"You know, whenever you break a tradition that’s 187 years old, not everybody’s going to love you. People who had volunteered to sponsor me, when the time came, ran out the door. On the other hand, some of the toughest people turned out to be my best friends. My two sponsors were both upstairs members. I could not get anybody from the floor to sponsor me, and some of those people had promised me. That was pretty tough. That’s hard to take." Muriel Siebert on being the first women to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. From her oral biography, recorded in Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times, by Lynn Gilbert.

Muriel Siebert - an excerpt from her oral biography

When a friend suggested to me that I buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange I said, “Don’t be ridiculous.” He said, “There’s no law against it.” Then it became a challenge and a game. It took me about six months until I got up the guts to do it. I kept going over it in my mind: “Gee, I want to do it, no, I don’t want to do it.” I was “hocking” myself. Four hundred and forty-five thousand dollars is a lot of money for something that isn’t tangible. I also didn’t know how many of my customers would still continue to do business with me. I was earning my living on the commissions I got from institutions based on the research I did for them, and it would mean I would have to go from an existing brokerage firm, although a small firm, to being on my own. I would still clear through a major firm so there was no risk for my customers, but until you take a step like that you don’t know how people will react. You just don’t know." Muriel Siebert - Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times, by Lynn Gilbert.