A statue titled 'Fearless Girl' was placed staring down the 'Wall Street Bull' to celebrate International Women's Day.

It was commissioned by the investment firm, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) and is intended to call attention to income inequality in the corporate world.

"A key contributor to effective independent board leadership is diversity of thought, which requires directors with different skills, backgrounds and expertise ... Today, we are calling on companies to take concrete steps to increase gender diversity on their boards and have issued clear guidance to help them begin to take action," the company's president Ron O'Hanley said.

It is pledging to introduce new quality initiatives - however, Reuters reports that only three of its 11 board members are women.

The bull was originally placed on Broadway two blocks from Wall Street in 1989. It was a protest by Italian-born artist Arturo Di Modica against the transfer of power from the US population to corporations. It was a hit and the bull was allowed to stay. 

Back home...

Two in five Irish women believe that their employers are biased in favour of recruiting men, according to a new gender diversity report from PwC.

In a global survey of 5,000 professionals in 70 countries, Irish women were among the most likely to feel that they were not dealing with a level playing field – tied at 40% with Brazil and the US, and just behind Switzerland at 46%. The global average was 30%.

Some 13% of Irish women also said that they felt they had personally experienced gender discrimination when applying or being interviewed for a job. This rose to just over one-fifth of women worldwide.

 

Additional reporting Craig Fitzpatrick