Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-06-27

Have women been "Smarter"
in handling their stock trans
actions than men in the past
few years? Or have they been
Tucker" than men, because
they didn't get in on the hot
hot new issues and over-priced
glamor stocks and haven't been
stuck with these now glacier
cold issues.
There's more than a sus-
picion that the answer to the
second question, if not the
first, is Eyes"
The evidence lies in the lat
est statistics comparing own
ership Of stocks by women and
men, disclosed yesterday in the
fourth survey of stock owner
ship by the New York Stock
Exchange. Here are the statis-
tics and an Interpretation on
which the comments above are
based.
Women Outnumber Men
Statistic: Today, women &C.
count for 81 per cent of the
adult shareholder population.
In 1859 women shareowners
outnumbered men by 52.5 to
AIS per cent, and in 1856 by
5l.4 to 48.6 per cent. The di-
vision between the sexes is more
even now than at any time
during the previous decade.
Statistic: Today, 1876 per cent
of adult males are stockholders
compared with 14.9 per cent
women. In 1859 the percent
age Of women topped that Of
men by a slim margin.
Statistic: Nearly SIS million
housewives are shareholders, up
from 4 million in 1859, and
housewives are the largest sin
gle group Of shareholders. But
as far as the percentage Of the
total goes, the housewife group
has risen from 1871 per cent
in 1859 to 1876 per cent now.
Statistic: Women lead most
markedly in the 65-and-over
group, where they outnum-
Der men by nearly 100000. Men,
though, account for a higher
proportion than women in the
most active ages of 81 to 81.
Statistic: More than twice as
many women as men - is
million to $4,000 - obtain
their first share of stock
through inheritance or gifts.
Statistic: Among the share
holders who have entered the
market for the first time since
1859, about SIS per cent are
women. But of those who be-
came new adult shareholders
between 1856 and 1859, more
than Sc per cent were women.
IL Million Holders
Put all these statistics to-
gether, place them against the
background of a shareholder
population of II million and
a market which in the past
few months has erased most
Of the gains of this entire Pc
Rod and where do you come
gut?
You come out suspecting
women recently have been
either smarter or luckier than
men in the market - and
here's why.
Obviously, the individuals
gambling in new stock issues
and bidding up the glamor
stocks last year were primarily
men. Otherwise, the percentage
Of women to men shareholders
would not have dropped as it
did. The census itself includes
footnote that data assembled
suggests that many more men
than women participated in the
unusual stock market activity
in the spring of 1861"
Obviously too, a lot of
women who owned shares in
1859 were no longer sharehold-
ers at the time of the 1852
census. This is the only ex-
PLANTATION for the fact that,
while SIS per cent of new share
holders since 1859 have been
women, the proportion of men
in the total shareowner popu-
lation between 1859 and 1862
climbed substantially.
The new issues and glamor
stocks have been the securities
which have taken the Severest
licking and hurt their owners
the most.
Perhaps the reason women
didn't play the new issues in
1851 is that they weren't on