ABSTRACT
It was promised in my last paper that some mention should be made of annuities and endowments for women. As regards annuities, I have often been surprised to find how little is known of the matter by precisely those women to whom they would be such an incalculable boon. I mean "lone women" of a certain age with no one dependent on them, and with a slender income of, say, £100 to £200 a year. Such a woman could, I will not say double her income, but make a very considerable addition to it by sinking some of her capital in an annuity. It may be objected that under these circumstances the capital would be lost, i.e., sunk, but it is lost just as much (though in quite a different sense) when a woman, to increase her income, has recourse to some of the wild-goose schemes which are so often brought before one's notice. Even in cases where an enterprise promising high interest is perfectly honest, the risk attending the venture is utterly unfit for a woman who has nothing but her small income to look to. With a business man it is a wholly different matter: before putting his money into some speculative venture he makes a point of ascertaining the actual standing of the concern, he may even himself be connected with the management. 240and often (indeed, generally) he is on the spot and can judge for himself of the way things are going.
