Sylvia Porter: Wall Street Pioneer
Pound Ridge has a rich history of remarkable women. From Sarah Lockwood, who challenged bayonet wielding Redcoats, to Dixie Tinghe who reported from World War II's ravaged battlefields, our small town has no shortage of amazing women. In celebration of Women’s History Month, we’re focusing on a pioneer in the traditionally male-dominated world of finance, Sylvia Field Porter.
A lifelong New Yorker, Porter was born on Long Island and graduated from Hunter College. She worked as an assistant in an investment firm on Wall Street and studied business part-time at New York University. Cultivating a mastery of her field, she began writing financial newsletters and was soon publishing a regular financial column in the New York Post. For many years, Porter signed her column “S.F. Porter” or “S.F. Porter Says” to avoid the prejudice that might accompany a female author in a traditionally male-dominated field.
Eventually signing her work “Sylvia Porter,” her daily column “Financial Post Marks” went on to be syndicated to over 400 newspapers nationally. She became financial editor at the New York Post and her writing expanded beyond financial and investment reporting to include investigations into financial practices. Her work inspired industry-wide reform and she went on to advise American Presidents including Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford.
Porter took her popular column to the New York Daily News and hosted a regular radio show on WJZ. She wrote for popular magazines and authored several best selling books on financial management. She eventually launched her own magazine, Sylvia Porter’s Personal Finance Magazine, which went on to become the third largest periodical in its segment. Porter received numerous awards for her writing before her death in Pound Ridge in 1991.
Learn more about Sylvia Porter and other amazing residents of Pound Ridge by visiting the Pound Ridge Museum.