Lauren Simmons: I don't want to be just an anomaly.
I don't want to be, you know,
the only one breaking ceilings.
I want there to be other women, minority, anybody.
Narrator: Lauren Simmons is the youngest woman
to be a full-time broker on the floor
of the New York Stock Exchange.
Well, usually I'll say "I, yeah, I work"
"at the New York Stock Exchange."
"Oh, what do you do?"
"An equity trader."
And they're shocked, but, you know, the perception is,
and especially in a lot of finance movies,
"Wolf of Wall Street," that they are white, older men,
and so to be 24 now
and to be a minority and a woman,
it is, it takes people, you know, a second to realize,
"Oh, wow, what an awesome job."
Narrator: Lauren is just one of two female brokers
on the floor.
With there being another person
that is different from everyone else,
it does bring diversity and new conversations
and new breath to the floor,
as far as looking towards, to a mentor that looks like you,
obviously that's not gonna happen.
I am grateful that I do get to work with men
that do want me to succeed.
Rich Rosenblatt, my boss, the CEO of the company,
he has given me so much career advice
outside of the exchange floor.
Narrator: The New York Stock Exchange itself
doesn't hire brokers.
Individual securities firms do.
Rosenblatt Securities hired Lauren in March 2017.
She had a degree in genetics
but no prior experience in finance.
I couldn't care less if she took finance classes.
We do research, and I care a lot about your education
to be an analyst for us.
Here, I care about who you are as a person.
Narrator: When Lauren's story was first reported on
in March 2018, there was a media storm,
and she felt like change was happening.
But when Rosenblatt Securities
posted a new broker position in May,
of over 250 applicants, not a single woman applied.
Simmons: Now, I have spoken with several women who will say
that they'll post a job and the qualifications
10 years experience and blah blah blah blah blah,
and the woman will have everything but the 10 years
and will say, "Well, I don't have the 10 years."
"Should I apply?"
You're more than overqualified to apply for this job.
Please apply for it.
While as men, again, what I've learned from them,
they just do it.
We have women applying for other jobs in the firm.
I don't know why more women don't apply for jobs
on the floor of the exchange.
Narrator: According to a 2017 study
by Stanford University,
men comprised 75% of the wealth management field
and filled more than 80% of leadership roles.
I think it definitely is a confidence thing
and just doing it.
When you are in the space
where you are extremely uncomfortable
and you're fear-driven and you still take the leap,
that's when the biggest growth happens.
So I think if more women were risk-averse
and they took the chance,
you would see a lot more women breaking glass ceilings
and these stories just being
a thing, not a "Oh, my gosh" moment.
It would be normalized.
Narrator: Lauren is only the second African-American
female broker in the Exchange's 226-year history.
Simmons: There's a difference in trying to have diversity
because that's the hot-topic word right now
and actually implementing diversity,
and the only way to implement diversity
is to really, truly want diversity.
It's so easy to throw around the word, and you'll know.
You'll know in those leadership roles
who is sitting at the top?
If the top are all five white men,
how diverse is it really?
I can't put it all on the men in the firms and the floor,
especially when it's not 100% their fault
if they don't get any applicants,
and I can't put it all on minorities
or people who didn't grow up learning finance
because what you don't know you're not gonna apply for.
You're just not exposed to it.
So where does that start?
Narrator: Lauren believes it could start
with the next generation.
Simmons: Honestly, I think things like traditional
Wall Street won't even be a thing.
I think people will get tired of people in leadership
and how they don't give them the opportunity,
and they'll write their own narrative.
They'll write their own, they'll make their own hedge fund,
and everyone a part of that hedge fund will be diverse.
Narrator: Next up for Lauren's story, the big screen.
Actress Kiersey Clemons is set to play Lauren
in a biopic about her journey
to the New York Stock Exchange.