A “Feminist” on Wall Street
July 15, 2010
by Amy Siskind
|Today marks the one year anniversary of the death of my dearly departed friend Cammy Fulton. In honor of Cammy, I wanted to share this special memory about this special woman. She lived and breathed the TNA credo each and every day!
In Memory of Cameron Ellen Fulton
We all have heroines in our life. We don’t need to look any further than our day to day lives to find them. We don’t have to be Superwoman or Wonder Woman to qualify as a heroine. Being right down here on earth and having your sisters back, or making things better for our next generation will suffice just fine.
Last week we lost a heroine named Cammy Fulton. I had the pleasure and privilege of knowing Cammy for over a decade.
I attended a funeral tribute this past week for Cammy. A room of full of women and men who every day aptly put on a facade of toughness on trading desks were moved to tears. We lost Cammy way too early. We lost a true heroine.
And isn’t it sad in life that often you don’t see certain sides of people until their eulogy is being read? Cammy’s Midwest family described how she was given the name “Cameron” at birth in anticipation that this one might need a tough name to survive in a big city job. And that Cammy considered herself a feminist.
Who knew? And what is a feminists anyways? The word feminist is not one that we used on Wall Street. Yet Cammy walked the walk and talked the talk of the ideals that organizations like The New Agenda should strive for.
In 1998, many women on Wall Street found ourselves being the only woman on the trading floor. Some of us gals decided that we should get together socially. The first time we got together there were 10 of us. Long after midnight, five of us stayed out way too late drinking and playing “I never:” Christine was at UBS, Lisa was at First Union, Barbara was at Merrill Lynch, I was at Wasserstein Perella, and Cammy was at Lehman.
And that would not be our last late night together. The next time word got out and the group met in Chelsea at a Mexican Restaurant. This time there were 30 women including Lorrie, Arleen, Sophie, Julie, Jean, Paula, Joyce, Pam, Ivona, Nancy, the infamous Lynn Tilton and many more. Of course at the end of the night it was again Christine, Lisa, Barbara, me and Cammy.
And somewhere along the way word continued to spread. So the next time, Cammy suggested that we each bring a young woman from the firm in which we worked. At this point I was at Morgan Stanley and I brought my mentee Monica. Not to be outdone, Cammy came with a crew of young women from Lehman – Cammy was already an icon over at Lehman. The young women met one another and found friends at other firms. And so on.
A few years later, even as Wall Street is about numbers and not words, someone decided that these women on Wall Street get-togethers should have a label or a name. Since we were all in the bankruptcy/distressed debt business, someone coined “Damsels in Distressed” – and there we were, an official women’s business organization. And suddenly Wall Street women from around the country would conveniently plan business trips around the next get-together.
The Damsels in Distressed continued to grow to become over a hundred women getting together. Somewhere along the way, women had their companies sponsor the Damsels in Distressed get-togethers in order to garner business for their firms. No longer were the get-togethers just women on trading floors – now Damsels in Distressed included lawyers, accountants, restructuring advisors and others who were seeking business from Wall Street. Damsels in Distressed also became a way for women to job network.
And somewhere along the way, us gals decided this was just too corporate and serious for us. So we stopped going to Damsels in Distressed and just met up after work now and then. But more importantly, we gained something along the way – each other.
Working on trading floors is never easy. And, as a woman, it can often be a lonely frontier. That’s why I was always so glad that when I had a bad day, I could dial Lehman’s trading desk and ask for Cammy. That contagious laugh. That positive spirit. Whenever I was down, there were two calls to be made – Cammy or Arleen. No matter how bad the day, one call and I was laughing so hard that I wanted to cry.
And so cry I did this past week. And so did Christine, Lisa and Barbara. We decided that we would all get together soon to go out for a night of drinking games and laughter. Cammy would have wanted it that way.
Excellent post. The financial industry, particularly investment banking, institutional trading and venture capital have a long and horrid history of not only excluding but also ridiculing women.
It is unfortunate that a women was not appointed as Treasury Secretary, Director of the White House’s National Economic Council or Chairman of the newly formed Economic Recovery Advisory Board. All these top financial posts went to men with Bair, Romer and Elizabeth Warren playing second fiddle, crunching numbers or being ignored.
*hugs* That was a wonderful article and truly inspirational. You certainly have a talent for bringing people together.
Nice article, Amy.
Don’t know where to put this, but follows nicely with LVL’s comments above:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07.....f=magazine
Very extensive (9 pages) article on Valerie Jarrett and her activities. Absolutely NO mention of the Women’s Council or any efforts on behalf of women.
The article starts off with comments by Obama (the “feminist”):
“Man, it’s late, I’m tired,” he snapped, “I’m not going to any sorority event….I told Anton I’m not going to any Pink Ice Ball!” Obama barked.
Good article. We have so many unsung, unappreciated heroines. And we must remember…..thanks!
Incidentally, thanks to readers for the Jarrett link. Obama or any of his administrators/advisors have ever had any interest in preventing gender inequality. Remember his “Hillary’s claws are comin’ out” and his infamous:
“Periodically, when Hillary feels ‘down’, she starts launching attacks against me to boost her appeal”! Now if that wasn’t the most deviously sneaky and perverse, yet all-too-common, corporate boardroom boys’ putdown….what is? But it was uttered by a presidential nominee who then went on stage in N.C. and “flip-offed” (using midfinger salute!) his female opponent to the applause of his fans…
thank you amy for bringing back all the feelings, good and bad ,we all shared on the trading desk. i was so sorry to miss cammy’s memorial. We all loved her smile and ability to make everyone feel comfortable. she will be sadly missed. my condolences go out to her mom and family. i
Thanks for this lovely post. I was a trader at GS at the time and would have loved to be part of your group…. blessings to all.
Cammy was my aunt, and today marks the one year anniversary that we lost her. Amy, I’m not sure if we met at the memorial, but every time I find myself feeling sad or missing my aunt, I google her name, and your article pops up. It has never let me down as an inspirational reading. I miss her very much, and it is comforting to know that she could be a part of something so special to so many women. I appreciate your blog more than you could ever imagine. Im so glad that you shared this experience with her, and I know that she loved inspiring other women. So thank you, again for this blog. My family misses her very much.
Megan,
We all miss Cammy. She was one of a kind. I mentioned her at TNA’s May 6th event in my introduction speech – there were about 20 of our Wall Street women there. I’m sure that she heard us and was with us in spirit.
Thank you for stopping by and for sharing your thoughts.
Leave your Response Want an avatar? Get a gravatar!
Community Room
February 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm
January 30, 2012 at 2:36 pm
January 26, 2012 at 4:38 pm
January 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm
January 15, 2012 at 11:37 am
January 9, 2012 at 6:36 pm
January 7, 2012 at 10:10 pm
January 5, 2012 at 9:31 am
BUILD your NETWORK
Our Network of College Women
Protecting our Teenage Girls
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Pioneer Mentors
Blogroll
Find us Online
Subscribe Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...