Women's History Month: A Perspective on Women Over the Last 50+ Years

March is Women's History Month: a time for celebrating women of character, courage, and commitment. So we have the perfect guest for you! Norma Yaeger, age 83, long considered to be "feisty and funny" is also the first woman to ever walk the floor of the NYSE. We'll be talking with her about the opportunities women have now that did not exist for them in the 1960s.

Coming of age in New York in the mid 20th century, when even educated women were expected to marry, have children and keep house, Norma bucked the trends and went to Bernard Baruch College and the NY Institute of Finance. She then did what was expected of women then: she got married, had children and deferred to her husband, when he failed to provide, she not only stepped-up but she stepped out and became a stockbroker.

Norma reminds us at the heart of the women’s movement is the underlying concept that women, as citizens, professionals, athletes and soldiers, were as valuable as men. The Women’s Movement today seems to revolve around abortion rights and birth control pills. But she reminds us that its roots meant much more to America. From the right to vote, to the right to work, to the right to privacy, the cultural and legal battles continue now even in the 21st Century.

In 1962, Norma became the first woman enrolled in the prestigious Hornblower & Weeks stockbroker training program; and as a trainee she demanded and got equal pay and was hired as a licensed broker at Hornblower & Weeks as the only woman on their Management Advisory Board. Upon moving to California, Norma soon opened her own firm and began lecturing throughout the United States giving advice to women starting careers and investing. She did all of this while raising five children. Norma has a written her first book "Breaking Down the Walls," available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. www.NormaYaeger.com