Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee, All the Best. Longtime listeners might remember back in season two when we interviewed Vanessa Loder about her decade of experience working on Wall Street. Vanessa told us that during those days, she, quote, cursed like a sailor, dressed in masculine-looking pants and sharp blazers, and once wolfed down a seven-inch subway

sandwich in under seven minutes on a dare while senior partners cheered her on. She recalled that

pulling all-nighters and working hundred-hour weeks was normal and something to brag about,

and that Wall Street was a work-hard, play-hard culture in which she excelled if she ignored the blatant sexism.

These quotes paint a vivid picture of the environment women faced on Wall Street even in recent decades.

But of course, Vanessa wasn't the first.

Generations of women had already been carving out space for themselves in a financial world that was explicitly

built by men and for men. These women's stories are extraordinary and have too often been

overlooked until now. Paulina Bren's newest book, She-Wolves, the untold history of women on Wall

Street, uncovers the extraordinary histories of women who fought their way into one of the

most male-dominated industries in America. These women endured exclusion, harassment, and

impossible double standards, yet still managed to break barriers and redefine what power and

professionalism could look like. But how did they do it? And why does it matter? Not just for women, but for the health of our

entire economy and culture. I'm so excited to dig into these questions with the author of Shee Wolves.

Paulina Brenn. Welcome, Paulina. Hello. I'm so glad to be here.

Paulina Bren is a writer, historian, and professor. She's the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller, The Barbizon, the hotel that set women free.

Paulina teaches at Vassar College, where she is the adjunct professor of multidisciplinary studies

on the Pittsburgh Endowment Chair in the Humanities and the Director of the Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies program.

Paulina's most recent book is She-Wolves, the untold history of women on Wall Street,

and it was named one of the 10 best nonfiction books of 2024 by the Kirkus Review.

And we'll be discussing this book today, as we said.

And congratulations on that, Paulina.

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