[4] Following complaints from Charging Bull sculptor Arturo Di Modica, Fearless Girl was removed in November 2018 and relocated to its current location the following month.

[1] When it was first installed, the sculpture faced Charging Bull, a much larger and heavier bronze statue that is 11 feet (3.4 m) tall and weighs 7,100 pounds (3,200 kg).

[6] Fearless Girl was intended to "send a message" about workplace gender diversity and encourage companies to recruit women to their boards.

"[1] The statue was installed on March 7, 2017—the day before International Women's Day—by State Street Global Advisors, in a campaign developed by advertising agency McCann New York.

"[15] New York City Public Advocate Letitia James wrote a letter that supported keeping the statue, "Fearless Girl stands as a powerful beacon, showing women—young and old—that no dream is too big and no ceiling is too high".

[26] This was tabled, the PDC asking the DOT to return with a revised application involving a shorter extension timeframe[27] in one month's time.

[32][1] On April 12, 2017, Di Modica and his attorney, former New York Civil Liberties Union director Norman Siegel, challenged city officials who let the Fearless Girl statue be installed.

[33][34] De Blasio supported keeping the statue, tweeting that "Men who don't like women taking up space are exactly why we need the Fearless Girl.

[40][41] The New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafante called the sculpture commission "an exercise in corporate imaging" by State Street, which, she wrote, had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the United States Department of Justice, agreeing to pay more than $64 million to resolve fraud charges for secretly billing clients for unwarranted commissions.

"Corporate feminism", she wrote, "operates with the singular goal of aiding and abetting a universe of mothers who tuck their daughters in at night whispering, 'Someday, honey, you can lead the emerging markets and sovereign debt team at Citigroup, and then become a director at Yahoo.

On February 14, 2019, State Street Global Advisors filed a lawsuit against Kristen Visbal, claiming that she had made and sold replicas of the statue in violation of her contract with the company.

[44] The suit claimed the artist made at least three unauthorized Fearless Girl reproductions that could damage the company's global campaign in support of female leadership and gender diversity.

Justice Jonathan Beach ruled in MBL's favor, finding there was no violation of SSGA's trademark, since the replica's name "fearless girl" was used in a descriptive way.

[52][53] On May 29, 2017, artist Alex Gardega added a statue of a small dog, titled Peeing Pug,[54] next to the Fearless Girl and removed it after approximately three hours.

[58] In November 2022, the Oslo statue was moved in front of the Iranian embassy in Drammensveien in support of women in Iran during the Mahsa Amini protests.

[66][67][68] In late 2017, State Street learned that another casting of Fearless Girl had been sold to a German company and raised concerns with Visbal that the sale or unveiling might violate one or more provisions of their contract.

[73] A reproduction was revealed by Kristen Visbal at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia, before Women's Day at March 8, 2019, planned to remain there for four years.