101 SHARES Share Tweet

Lauren Simmons is currently the only full-time female stockbroker working on the floor of the New York Exchange. Simmons is also one of few women who’ve ever held a trading role, according to a BBC report, she joins a short list of women who have signed their names in the book containing the constitution of the New York Stock Exchange alongside the richest person in modern history John D. Rockefeller.

SEE ALSO: Black-owned Dallas Restaurant reserves Mondays to serve the homeless

Simmons, graduated from Kennesaw State University (2016) just two years ago with a bachelor’s degree in genetics. She told BBC’s Joe Miller “I fell in love with the numbers and the fast movement, and the men in the trading jackets and everything was moving so fast and I’m loving it.”

Richard Rosenblatt, founder and CEO of the boutique securities firm who hired Simmons last year said he’s confident “she won’t be the last.” Although artificial intelligence is fast replacing humans on how stock portfolios are managed nowadays, the floors of the New York Exchange is still overwhelmingly dominated by men.

“Trading in a trading crowd was a very physical thing,” Rosenblatt, who has been a broker since 1969, said. “You and I would look at each other and try to figure out: How big an order did we have? How nervous did you look? How aggressive were you going to be?”

It didn’t attract a lot of women back then, he said.

Even today, people still marvel at the job Simmons does in a male-dominated environment. Simmons said “They are like you’re a woman, and you are 23, and you are a minority…what are you doing, how did you get this job?”

Lauren Simmons remains the only full-time female broker on the floor despite Rosenblatt’s attempts to recruit others, according to the BBC.

“We just hired a new person not too long ago and in the interview process, there weren’t that many female applicants, because they weren’t applying,” Simmons said.

SEE ALSO: New Study Proves ‘Black on Black Crime’ Narrative is False

Copyright ©2018 The Black Detour All Rights Reserved.