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curious2
2013 Aug 25, 3:55pm
curious2
2013 Aug 25, 3:55pm
Mickie Siebert was a unique combination of remarkable qualities, both generous and a scrapper, a woman who won what many considered a man's game. 80 years is a good run, already longer than average. Nobody can live forever, though Estelle Strongin nearly did.
Mickie Siebert arrived in New York "with $500, a Studebaker and a dream." After gaining experience on Wall Street, Siebert founded a famously successful discount brokerage firm that never took a bailout. During her five year term as New York State's superintendent of banking, none of the banks in the state failed.
"She was one of the first women, in the early 1970s, to fight to end the sexist practices then prevalent in Manhattan social clubs, spurred by an experience she had at the Union League Club. She had arrived there for a board luncheon meeting of the Sales Executive Club and was not allowed in the elevator.
“I had to go through the kitchen and walk up the back stairs,†she recalled. She was so angry during the meeting that her male colleagues asked what was wrong. When the lunch was finished, they tried to take her down in the elevator with them. When she was again rebuffed, they joined her in walking down the stairs and through the kitchen."
Having overcome discrimination to achieve success, she donated millions of dollars to help other women get their start in business and finance.
Mickie Siebert died yesterday, from complications of cancer.
R.I.P.