Sexism in the City: Women Stockbrokers in Modern Britain , by James Taylor

On a colourised book cover photo from 1973, stockbroker Muriel Wood stands in the middle of the all-male London Stock Exchange trading floor. The captured moment is a historical one: on the day depicted, Wood and her few female colleagues finally gained access as formal stock exchange members. The graphics underline her isolated position, centred and singled out in a red square, while her male counterparts are a conglomeration in pale blue. With Wood seemingly still and quiet amid a buzzing and interacting crowd of suits, the observer is left to interpret Wood as independent protagonist or precarious outcast. James Taylor’s Sexism in the City incorporates both these narratives. By scrutinising the gendered ideologies and oppressive structures of the British Stock Exchange, mainly during the period 1870–1970, he describes how women stockbrokers created professional paths while struggling to achieve institutional membership against tenacious male opposition. Taylor notes that finance has proved to be one of the last exclusively ‘male bastions’ in the UK, where it has been surpassed by both the army and parliament in formally accepting women professionals.