“FEARLESS GIRL” UNVEILED IN NEW LOCATION AT NYSE

YORK» The Fearless Girl is NEW making her stand outside the very temple of American capitalism.

The hands-on-her-hips statue that spent most of the past two years staring down Wall Street’s Charging Bull sculpture, becoming a spunky symbol of feminine empowerment, was unveiled Monday at her new permanent home, in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

“We’re honored to welcome Fearless Girl to the very spot that has captured the minds of business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs,” Betty Liu, executive vice chairman of the stock exchange, said at a ceremony to reintroduce the 4-foot statue. “You’re among friends here at the New York Stock Exchange.”

The statue was commissioned by Boston-based investment fund State Street Global Advisors as a way to push for more women on corporate boards. It was originally positioned across from the Charging Bull, on a traffic island near the tip of Manhattan, but was removed last month, in part because the admiring crowds around the two sculptures were creating a hazard.

The bull will eventually rejoin Fearless Girl near the stock exchange, but no date for the move has been given.

State Street CEO Cyrus Taraporevala said companies with female directors on their boards “tend to be better managed.”

“So for us, advocating for gender diversity is not some part of a political agenda. It’s about our longterm performance agenda. This is about value, not values,” he said.

Taraporevala said 301 companies that State Street identified as having no women on their boards have added at least one since Fearless Girl made her debut in March 2017. — The Associated Press