She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street

A Washington Post Most Anticipated Book for Fall • A Next Big Idea Club Must Read • One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books for Fall 2024 • One of UnTapped New York's Best NYC Books of All Time • A Town & Country Must-Read for Fall 2024 • In development with Mark Gordon Pictures The propulsive story of the women who sought, and gained, a piece of the action on Wall Street. First came the secretaries from Brooklyn and Queens—the "smart cookies" who saw that making money, lots of it, might be within their grasp. Then came the first female Harvard Business School graduates, who were in for a rude awakening because an equal degree did not mean equal opportunity. But by the 1980s, as the market went into turbodrive, women were being plucked from elite campuses to feed the belly of a rapidly expanding beast, playing for high stakes in Wall Street's bad-boy culture by day and clubbing by night. In... The propulsive story of the women who sought, and gained, a piece of the action on Wall Street. First came the secretaries from Brooklyn and Queensthe smart cookies who learned on the job despite the obstacles. Then came the first Harvard Business School grads, who, despite their hard-earned diplomas, often settled for less. Eventually came the yuppies of the 1980s in power suits and commuter sneakers. In She-Wolves, award-winning historian Paulina Bren tells the story of the first generations of women who fought their way into the bad-boy culture and lavish opulence of the finance world. If the wolves of Wall Street made a show of their ferocity, the she-wolves did so with tough-as-nails persistence. Starting at a time when No Ladies signs hung across the doors of Wall Streets clubs and unapologetic sexism and racism were the norm at top firms, Bren chronicles the remarkable women who demanded a seat at the table. She-Wolves is an engaging and enraging look at the collision of women, finance, and New York from the go-go years to ground zero.