Long known as the "first woman of finance," Mickie Siebert was the first woman to purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She continues to run the discount brokerage she founded, the Siebert Financial Corporation.

A Cleveland native, Siebert began her career in finance at high-power brokerage firms like Finkle & Co. and Brimberg and Co. She began her eponymous firm Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc. in 1967, and during that same year she began to pursue her quest to join the New York Stock Exchange. Although the boys club did not look on her attempt very kindly, throwing up absurd new conditions in order to consider her application, she was finally elected to membership in December of 1967 and proved her mettle as the Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York in 1977. A member of the NYSE for over forty years, Siebert took a stab at political office when she ran for Senate in the late 70s (she lost in the primary), but she is best known for her decades-long management of her firm and for her advocacy of women in the financial industry. [Image via Getty]