Shattering the glass ceiling: How Susan Shaw became the first woman trader at London Stock Exchange

For some on the time, permitting girls to hitch the members’ membership fashioned in 1801 on the coronary heart of the Metropolis of London was an odd
spectacle — and an unwelcome one. The London Inventory Alternate itself didn’t need girls to hitch, with members voting

in opposition to it a number of instances. It solely occurred as a result of the London alternate merged with regional ones, the place girls had been already
allowed to participate within the shopping for and promoting of firm shares. “We obtained in by the again door,” Shaw says, who was 37 on the
time. There have been simply 12 in that first group admitted 50 years in the past.

Making Historical past
There was trepidation on the primary day. Shaw wearing black and white, like the lads, and went to the ground early with a male colleague. Regardless of not eager to be observed, “phrase obtained spherical. There have been welcomes and kisses and handshakes. It
was actually very warming”. Additionally there on the primary day was Anthea Gaukroger. A graduate of University College London with a

diploma in French literature and language, Gaukroger was working in analysis at stockbroker Sheppards & Chase.Gaukroger, who was 31 on the time, stepped on the “hallowed flooring” with one other of the trailblazers, Hilary Pearson, or Hilary Root
as she was then. It was ironic, Gaukroger recollects, that since she labored in analysis and Root was in portfolio administration,
neither truly wanted to be within the place the place shares had been traded.

Lorna Tilbian recollects the impression Gaukroger had. Tilbian, who went on to be a extremely rated media analyst and one of many founders of Numis Securities within the early 2000s, says there have been fairly just a few girls within the analysis division, by which Gaukroger had a robust affect.

Altering Occasions
The alternate within the ’80s was nonetheless not an easy place for girls. As a part of the coaching to change into a member, candidates
needed to be “blue buttons” — or unauthorised clerks on the alternate flooring. “The boys used to ask the ladies to ask the jobbers for a worth and measurement of firms that didn’t exist,” Tilbian remembers. “That solely lasted a few week.”

Ladies now take up a 3rd of seats on the common listed firm’s govt committee, in line with the most recent Ladies in
Finance Constitution. Feminine finance employees’ pay rose from 16,000 kilos in 1997 to 50,000 kilos in 2022, whereas males’s wages rose from 33,500 kilos to 80,000 kilos over the identical interval. Immediately, a girl runs the alternate: Julia Hoggett.
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