The early twentieth century saw the British capital market reach a state of maturity before any of its global counterparts. This coincided with more women participating directly in the stock market. This study analyses whether these female shareholders chose to invest independently of men. Using a novel dataset of almost 500,000 shareholders in some of the largest British railways, it shows that women were much more likely to be solo shareholders than men. There is also evidence that they prioritized their independence above other considerations such as where they invested or how diversified they could be.

中文翻译：

---

独立妇女：1870–1922年在英国铁路上的投资†

二十世纪初，英国的资本市场达到了成熟的状态，而这一趋势在其全球同行中都没有。与此相吻合的是，有更多的妇女直接参与股票市场。这项研究分析了这些女性股东是否选择独立于男性进行投资。通过使用一些英国最大铁路中近500,000名股东的新颖数据集，它表明女性比男性更有可能成为独资股东。还有证据表明，他们优先考虑独立性，而不考虑其他因素，例如投资的地点或投资的多元化程度。