ARE WOMEN THRIFTY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1937, Page 14

ARE WOMEN THRIFTY?

SOME AMAZING FACTS.

SAVING AND BUYING POWER

The publication in Tuesday's "Star" of a very interesting article summarising the growth and present strength of the New Zealand Post Office Savings Bank reveals that it ha* during 70 years of operation increased the number of Hβ depositors from just over a hundred for the whole Dominion to 840,671, while the nominal value of the people's savings ie to-day £52,584366. A nigh proportion of these investors are women, and this fact eugests how big a stake women actually possets in the financial welfare of the Dominion.

Some very surprising statistics were given recently in an international review journal with regard to the financial position of women in the United States, supporting the writer's contention that the women of America constitute the greatest single financial force that has ever existed, anywhere, at any time since the world's history began. Out of an annual average of epending money, that is for food, clothing and general living needs, of 70 billion dollars, it is estimated that women have the uncontrolled epending of 80 per cent of this amount. The result that- modern American advertising is' designed to appeal practically exclusively to feminine buyers.

Aβ ealary and wage earners. American women earn yearly stupendous sums. An estimate of nearly two billion dollar* ,wae put on the earnings of women in the professions, euch as teachers, nurses, doctors and lawyers, while other workers* yearly wages were computed to near the five billion level. Women millionaires number some 3000, of which about 400 are multimillionaires. A review of women's holdings in corporation stock and similar investments discloses that women form about 48 per cent of the stockholders and own between 25 and 30 per cent of the stock. In eplte of the incentive given by big dividends to women to invest their capital direct, women have an interest in some 70 per cent of the savings accounts in American banks, either as sole depositors or jointly with men. Since the total deposits exceed ten billion dollars, women thus have a direct or indirect control of some seven billion dollar*.

Already it hae been foreshadowed what power this great financial feminist block might wield in the future, from control of the conditions of labour of all workers to the prevention of war by decisive holdings in the necessary steel, oil and explosives industries. There is no doubt the force of educated and emancipated womanhood throughout the world, applied through the channels of personal and financial influence, is nearing the stage when it can be applied for the maintenance of world peace.