A four-foot tall bronze sculpture is now eyeball to eyeball with Wall Street's iconic bull sculpture, and she is not backing down. Arriving just in time for International Women's Day March 8, 2017, 'The Fearless Girl' -- created by artist Kristen Visbal -- is on a global mission to increase the participation of women on corporate boards. A plaque laid at the bronze girl's feet reads: "KNOW THE POWER OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP/SHE MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

“Wall Street is a traditionally male environment and (the statue) says, ‘Hey, we’re here,’” Visbal explained. “To me, it says a woman can be delicate and petite but strong.”

'The Fearless Girl' arrived in the middle of the night, compliments of McCann New York and client State Street Global Advsers, the world's third-largest asset manager with a $2.5 trillion portfolio. The guerrilla art aspect of her landing "is in keeping with the Charging Bull itself, which was installed without permission by artist Arturo Di Modica in 1989. Following the stock market crash of 1987, the sculpture represented strength and power and the promise of prosperity that would return. After the American economy's 2007 meltdown, Charging Bull came to represent a day-trading, short-term results economy running wild. Simply stated, Charging Bull now represents a potentially out-of-control, testosterone-driven American DOW stock-buying spree economy making a big comeback under President Trump.

"One of the most iconic images on Wall Street is the charging bull," Lori Heinel, State Street's deputy global chief investment officer, told Business Insider. "So the idea of having a female sort of stand against the bull or stand up to the bull just struck us as a very clever but also creative and engaging way to make that statement. Even though it's a little girl, her stance is one of determination, forwardness, and being willing to challenge and take on the status quo."

The SSGA campaign addresses the well-established fact that companies with women in top positions perform better financially.

“We believe good corporate governance is a function of strong, effective and independent board leadership,” Ron O’Hanley, president and chief executive officer of SSGA, said in a statement. “A key contributor to effective independent board leadership is diversity of thought, which requires directors with different skills, backgrounds and expertise. Today, we are calling on companies to take concrete steps to increase gender diversity on their boards and have issued clear guidance to help them begin to take action.”

O’Hanley will detail the guidance today in a keynote speech at the Corporate Governance Symposium hosted by the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.

Numerous studies, including one from MSCI (Modern Index Strategy Indexes) cited by SSGA show higher returns on equity in firms with significant numbers of female professionals in the executive suite and on the board. In the MSCI research, companies with strong female leadership have a return on equity of 10.1 percent a year, versus 7.4 percent from those without a critical mass of women at the top, says SSGA. " Yet one in four Russell 3000 companies don’t have even one woman on their board, and nearly 60 percent of boards are less than 15 percent women."

Digging more deeply into the data, Catherine Yoshimoto, Senior Index Product Manager at Russell 3000 reminds us how little progress has been made on this issue in the last decade.

I discovered that, at least in the US, the glass is only 5% full for women, as represented by the percentage of female CEOs of companies in the Russell 3000® Index. This figure was consistent when based both on number of companies and as a percentage of market cap. Five percent is remarkably low, given women make up 47% of the civilian labor force, of which 75% work full-time.[1]

The argument is not that women CEOs outperform male CEOs. The research results are murky on this topic. Note that no significant research indicates that women perform worse. But the research is indisputable that mixed-gender companies with women at the highest levels bring in significantly higher results.

Studies have demonstrated that gender equality could be favorable for the US. According to the McKinsey Global Institute report 'How advancing women's equality can add $12 trillion to global growth',

A “best in region” scenario in which all countries match the rate of improvement of the fastest-improving country in their region could add as much as $12 trillion, or 11 percent, in annual 2025 GDP. In a “full potential” scenario in which women play an identical role in labor markets to that of men, as much as $28 trillion, or 26 percent, could be added to global annual GDP by 2025. MGI’s full-potential estimate is about double the average estimate of other recent studies, reflecting the fact that MGI has taken a more comprehensive view of gender inequality in work.

Yoshimoto examines the McKinsey data for America. It concludes that achieving gender parity in the US could add $4.3 trillion of additional annual GDP in 2025, 19% higher than the business-as-usual scenario.[3] Even just matching the best historical rates of improvement on gender equality in the workplace could increase annual GDP by $2.1 trillion in 2025.

'A Fearless Girl' fronts a SSGA campaign that calls on more than 3,500 companies -- ones that SSGA invests in on behalf of clients -- to take concrete steps to increase the number of women on their boards.

McCann did get a permit for the girl statue, who will reside in Bowling Green for at least a month. The McCann agency is negotiating with New York City for her to become part of the art program so she can stay longer. We LIKE her!!