First lady Melania Trump touted the outsized role women play in the American and global economies during a keynote speech at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesday."People still do not fully understand the full scale of women's power in the global economy.Women are not just a part of [the] marketplace, simple participants," she said while speaking at IMPERIA, the first invite-only global summit at the NYSE designed exclusively for female CEOs and executives."We are its foundation and we are its infrastructure," she continued.FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP, FOX CORPORATION ANNOUNCE LANDMARK STRATEGIC ALLIANCE TO GROW FOSTERING THE FUTURERinging in the morning bell at the exchange, Trump also made the case that women remain a latent asset in the marketplace.US First Lady Melania Trump, flanked by President of NYSE Group Lynn Martin, signs the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) guestbook, after ringing the opening bell, in New York City, US, September 23, 2026.
(REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)"The world's biggest untapped economic force is not a new market, a breakthrough technology, or an undiscovered natural resource.It is women coming together as owners," the first lady said.She then painted a picture of what the market would look like absent the driving force of female impact."Remove women as consumers, investors, leaders, caregivers, innovators and managers of household finances and the modern economy would not work as it does today," she said."Remove women from the workforce and we would lose doctors, engineers, bankers, lawyers and millions of other professionals.
Remove women from the unseen and ignored economy of care, childcare, running households, home teaching and caring for elderly or sick family members and the support structure that lets others work for pay begins to collapse.Remove women from capital formation and we lose investors, shareholders, asset managers, property owners, retirement savers and those who protect intergenerational wealth," Trump contin...