Muriel Siebert

Muriel Siebert began her career in the 1950s as a research analyst in the high- powered world of Wall Street. Challenging and upending long-held cultural norms, Siebert achieved milestones no other woman had. Known to friends and colleagues as Mickie, she was the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, the first woman to own and operate a brokerage firm on the New York Stock Exchange, and the first woman to hold the position of Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York. As her success and influence grew, Siebert championed women in business, advanced financial literacy, and through the establishment of the Siebert Entrepreneurial Philanthropic Plan supported communities in need.

Siebert’s story reflects the challenges many women faced in the latter half of the twentieth century as the number of women working outside the home and the number of female-owned businesses climbed. Throughout her groundbreaking career, Mickie Siebert remained true to her philosophy: “When you hit a closed door and it doesn’t budge, just rear back and kick it in—but hold it open so others can follow you.”1

Supported by the de Gaspé Beaubien Family Endowment at Harvard Business School