Siebert's speech was a catalogue of discrimination she had endured and overcome — each story told with dry humor rather than bitterness. She had been told to 'wear a hat and white gloves in the elevators.' She had sent out resumes with her full name and received no responses; the same resume with just initials got interviews and a job. She had walked through kitchens with the waiters because the Union League Club wouldn't let her use the elevator. But the point was not grievance — it was evidence. Siebert's firm had senior-managed a $250 million underwriting for Detroit Water, with Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Paine Webber beneath her. 'The bank that wouldn't make me the loan for the seat was under us for underwriting — and that's important.' Her two-sentence declaration was both a statement of principle and a victory lap: competence had no gender, and she had proven it with dollars and deals.