Paulina Bren is a writer and award-winning historian who teaches at Vassar College on the Pittsburgh Endowment Chair in the Humanities. Her previous book, the best-selling The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and has been widely translated. Her next book, She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street, called “enthralling” by Publisher’s Weekly, is already the Next Big Idea Club Must-Read, The Washington Post’s as well as LitHub’s Most Anticipated Books for Fall 2024, and UntappedNewYork’s 100 Best Books about New York of all time. She-Wolves is in development with Mark Gordon Pictures.
Photo by Adam Patane
SESSION INFO:
Sunday, October 6, 12:15pm at Saratoga Springs Public Library Dutcher Community Room: Breaking Glass Ceilings on Wall Street (and Elsewhere) with Paulina Bren & Daphne Uviller
Books
About She-Wolves
The propulsive story of the women who sought, and gained, a piece of the action on Wall Street.
First came the secretaries from Brooklyn and Queens—the “smart cookies” who learned on the job despite the obstacles. Then came the first Harvard Business School grads, who, despite their hard-earned diplomas, often settled for less. Eventually came the yuppies of the 1980s in power suits and commuter sneakers. In She-Wolves, award-winning historian Paulina Bren tells the story of the first generations of women who fought their way into the bad-boy culture and lavish opulence of the finance world. If the wolves of Wall Street made a show of their ferocity, the she-wolves did so with tough-as-nails persistence. Starting at a time when “No Ladies” signs hung across the doors of Wall Street’s clubs and unapologetic sexism and racism were the norm at top firms, Bren chronicles the remarkable women who demanded a seat at the table. She-Wolves is an engaging and enraging look at the collision of women, finance, and New York from the go-go years to ground zero.