On Monday, the Fearless Girl did as most New York transplants do after their first year in the city: She moved to more permanent digs, several blocks north, opposite the New York Stock Exchange.
“We are welcoming her with open arms,” Betty Liu, executive vice chairwoman of the exchange, which appointed its first female president in 226 years in May, said in an interview on Monday.
The 250-pound statue was commissioned by State Street Global Advisors, a Boston-based financial firm, and placed in front of the Charging Bull sculpture on Wall Street last year to draw attention to “the power of women in leadership.”
“She can have an even bigger stage to make an even bigger impact,” Cyrus Taraporevala, the firm’s chief executive, said Monday at the unveiling of the statue at its new home.
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The Fearless Girl sculpture attracted immediate attention last year, with admirers snapping and sharing photos, as well as making pleas for it to become a permanent fixture. But the sculpture also drew backlash, with critics calling it an act of “corporate feminism" and a “marketing coup.”
Months later, the firm’s parent company, State Street Corp., agreed to pay $5 million mostly to settle claims that it discriminated against 305 top female employees by paying them less than men in the same positions.
In the agreement, officials at the U.S. Labor Department also alleged that State Street discriminated against 15 black vice presidents by paying them less than white employees in the same positions.
(State Street Corp.'s website currently lists three women on its 11-member board of directors.)
As tourists and New Yorkers flocked to the Fearless Girl statue over the past year and a half, posing in similar power stances, the large crowds became a safety issue. In April, city officials announced her move to a location near the exchange, an area already heavily restricted to traffic, where large numbers of pedestrians but few cars pass through.
“I am thrilled Fearless Girl will remain in New York,” Kristen Visbal, the statue’s sculptor, said in a statement released by City Hall in April.
Now there is a plaque where she used to stand in Bowling Green, near the bull sculpture, whose creator, Arturo Di Modica, had been vocal about his displeasure with the Fearless Girl. But the bull may not be there for long, if the city has its way.
A city official said Monday that the Charging Bull sculpture would eventually move close to the New York Stock Exchange, but it was unclear exactly where.
For Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has posed for pictures with the Fearless Girl statue, it was important to keep the two sculptures together.
“I’ve been profoundly struck by what this statue means in particular to women, and to girls in this city, and this whole country,” de Blasio said weeks after the statue was placed downtown. “I think there’s an even broader symbolism of standing up to fear, standing up to power, being able to find in yourself the strength to do what’s right.”
On Monday, de Blasio said in a statement that the city was “proud to be home to the Fearless Girl.”
“She is a powerful symbol of the need for change at the highest levels of corporate America — and she will become a durable part of our city’s civic life,” he said. “This move to a new location will improve access for visitors and ensure that her message and impact continues to be heard.”
If the bull sculpture follows the Fearless Girl statue to the New York Exchange, it would be a return of sorts for the bull. Thirty years ago, Di Modica placed the Charging Bull in front of the exchange in the middle of the night. The bull was then moved to its current location after the police saw its original placement as a traffic obstruction. (Di Modica could not be reached for comment Monday.)
For Liu, the Fearless Girl statue will be a daily reminder of the bravery her parents taught her.
“I am the daughter of Chinese immigrants,” Liu said. “My father, from China, has always instilled in me the fearlessness of going for what your dreams are."
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.