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Just in time for International Women’s Day and tomorrow’s A Day Without A Woman Strike, someone put a sculpture of a young girl staring down the iconic Charging Bull in front of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.
The Financial Distract landmark now finds itself face-to-face with the figure of a young ponytailed girl, age ten-ish, in a dress with her chin held high and her hands on her hips in a defiant pose. A circular plaque lays at her feet with the inscription, “KNOW THE POWER OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP/SHE MAKES A DIFFERENCE.” The statue seems to be made of bronze, like the Bull itself, though there’s no word yet on who the artist behind the work is, or how long it will be in place, though it does seem that the piece was installed sometime overnight between Monday and Tuesday.
It’s ironic, perhaps, that the bull itself, the creation of sculptor Arturo Di Modica, was originally put in place surreptitiously on Dec 15, 1989 as an act of guerrilla art. Since then, of course, it’s become a permanent fixture. There’s no telling if the same fate awaits the girl, though she and the bull make such a cute couple, it would be a shame to break them up.
Update: Via Raw Story, it's been reported that Kristen Visbal is the artist who created the statue, and that it was put in place ahead of International Women’s Day by the Wall street investment firm State Street Global Advisors as a way of noting the pay disparity between men and women in the financial industry, as well as the lack of gender diversity on corporate boards.