Evening star., 1962-12-10
YOUR MONEYS WORTH
American Woman
In Wall Street

Keith Funston, president Of
the New York Stock Exchange,
is more OF q gentleman in TAX
ing the nuts" in print 1 sent
to him last week than I was
a lady in selecting this deri-
sive greeting.
Instead OF rearing up In
anger because I wrote that the
New York Stock Exchanges re-
cent report dissecting Black
Monday, May 2S, gave the mis-
leading impression that women
panicked and helped kick off
that historic stock market
break, his reply was a gentle,
I'VE only cited statistics, drew
no conclusions and we're not
the least bit concerned about
the behavior Of women in the
market" Mr.. Funston then
proceeded to load me with sta
tistics to prove the great en-
phasis the NYSE is continu-
ing to place on women's grow
ing role in the stock market"
Here, therefore, Is new in
formation about the American
woman in Wall Street In 1862
and this story ] submit with
pleasure.
Courses Attended
Item: About half of the is
million people attending the
courses offered by NYSE men,
Der firms across the country |
are women.
Women also are among the |
most devoted participants in
the $4,000 investment clubs
currently operating in the
United States. The rough esti- /,
mate is that one-third of the |
$4,000 members of the clubs
are women and one-fourth are |
exclusively women's groups.
Item: Women are entering
important Jobs in the securi-
ties industry at a faster rate
than men. In 1946 there were
$3.50 registered representatives
of NYSE firms. of which 17S
were women. Today there are
32.506 registered representa-
tives Of NYSE firms, Of which
1903 are women. The overall
growth rate is 353 per cent,
but the growth rate for women
is l,0l6 per cent. In 1910 there
were 2,480 NYSE partners, but
women held only "a general
and IS limited partnerships at
that time. Today there are
5.806 partners, with women
holding So general and 474
limited partnerships. The over
all growth rate Is 234 per cent,
but the growth rate for women
is TIA per cent.
Item: THE Lady and the
Stock Exchange" the Big
Boards first "screenplay," was
completed and titled after the
May crackup in the stock mar
ket. In that film the woman
makes the shrewd investment
decision. the husband is the
one who acts on q tip, finally
backs down. Actually, NYSE Of
ficials report they've received
complaints that the movie
makes fun of the head Of the
family.
Item: To underline its lack
Of concern about women's be-
havior in the market, the
NYSE has started a new ed
ucational radio series - 26
weeks Of five-minute shows -
beamed to women, and 1t Is
continuing its special women's
ads in major vomen's maga-
zines. Preliminary studies Of re-
sponses to the ads indicate
that they have had extremely
high leadership. Says an NYSE
official, Increasingly, and par
ticularly with newly investing
families. wives have the major
say in family investment de-
ciSionS. And we mean invest
ments, not Speculations."
Wording Unfortunate
1t was unfortunate that the
NYSE highlighted its finding
that during the chaotic days
Of May 2s. 20 and 81. in Wall
Street. Women, whose total
volume was about one third
that for men, nevertheless had
a sales balance in the aggre-
gate for the three days which
was two-and-a-half times as
great as that for men," This
does give the misleading i'm
preston that women dumped
stocks in skyrocketing volume.
The NYSE has no proof that
they dumped. Women ac-
counted for only 25.5 per cent
Of total trading by individuals.
OF course, some women
panic under violent strain-fi-