'Fearless Girl' Statue Moving Out Of Charging Bull's Way

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — The "Charging Bull" won't have a "Fearless Girl" standing in its way much longer. The figure of a defiant girl facing down the Financial District's iconic bovine will take up a new home in front of the New York Stock Exchange by the end of the year, city officials said Thursday.

State Street Global Advisors, a financial firm, installed the statue around International Women's Day last March as part of a campaign to increase the number of women on corporate boards. Since then it's become a tourist attraction and a feminist symbol to some, while critics have argued it's a corporation's effort to co-opt activist values.

The statue's popularity has created some headaches near its Bowling Green Park home, where crowds of admirers often back up into the street, according to the New York Daily News, which first reported the move.

The new location facing the Stock Exchange — another icon of corporate power — will maintain the statue's message while making it easier for visitors to see it, officials say.

"The historic corner of Wall & Broad saw the swearing in of our country’s first president and the birth of our capital markets, and is joined now by a striking symbol of our ongoing journey toward greater equality, broader inclusion, and a more perfect union," Stock Exchange President Thomas Farley said in a statement.

State Street says "Fearless Girl" is influencing real change. The firm has pushed 152 publicly traded companies to add the first woman to their boards in the year since the statue was unveiled, according to a March news release.

The city is also considering moving "Charging Bull" near the Stock Exchange, officials said. It could be reunited with "Fearless Girl," but the details have yet to be worked out, said Eric Phillips, Mayor Bill de Blasio's press secretary.

"Anyone who’s ever relocated a 7,000-lb bronze bull knows what I mean," Phillips said on Twitter.

(Lead image: A woman poses for a photo next to the "Fearless Girl" statue in March 2017. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)