Late yesterday morning, Business Insider broke news of Kristen Visbal's beautifully symbolic statue of a "Fearless Girl" placed opposite the famous Wall Street "Charging Bull." The statue is a wonderful representation of female authority, and comes with a powerful vow to campaign for the inclusion of women in business.
While the statue will only be erected for a month, State Street Global Advisors—the world's third-largest asset manager and the company to spearhead the statue's implementation—has sent letters to 3,500 companies urging them to take action on closing the gender gap in business, part of a larger campaign focused on pressing companies to include women.
The fund manager wants every company targeted to include at least one woman at a board-level position and to demonstrate steps taken toward narrowing the gender gap, Lori Heinel, State Street's deputy global chief investment officer, told Business Insider.
The statue's appearance aligns with International Women's Day, the International Women's Strike and A Day Without a Woman, all of which rally today for feminist causes.
While Donald Trump is busy tweeting about himself, so far Women's March organizers have been arrested at the New York Day Without a Woman strike after blocking traffic in an act of civil disobedience outside the Trump Hotel, according to their Twitter.
Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, Women's March National Co-chair Carmen Perez, co-chair and co-founder Bob Bland, artistic director Paola Mendoza, social media manager Alyssa Klein, and advocate Tamika Mallory are among those in the photos posted to Twitter of the group of arrested organizers.
The arrests came after organizers gave speeches in support of women, trans people, women of color, and equal pay for equal work.
This is exactly the kind of fearlessness I see in Visbal's statue. In solidarity, PRIDE salutes you, women of the strike.
For updates throughout the day, follow the Women's March Twitter account here, and change your profile icons in support of the official Women's March to their custom red graphic, here.
