In her recently published memoir, Changing the Rules: Adventures of a Wall Street Maverick, the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange recounts her historic dustups -- for example, the time she ran into former Goldman Sachs übertrader and thenNYSE chairman Gus Levy and incoming NYSE chairman Bunny Lasker at tony Manhattan restaurant Le Perigord. “Muriel, some of the men object to you being on the floor,” Lasker told her, suggesting that she transfer her seat to a male employee of her firm. “Mr. Lasker,” replied Siebert, now 69, “the day that happens against my will, I’ll hold the biggest goddamn press conference the city of New York has ever seen.” That was more than three decades ago. Siebert has mellowed a bit over the years. But she’s not shy about asserting that Wall Street has not changed enough since she broke the gender barrier. “I’m disappointed that you don’t see a woman as chairman or CEO of any of the major securities firms,” she says. “Women are running Fortune 500 companies, but not on Wall Street. We’re making some strides, but we’re still not in the club. It’s still a boys’ club.”
