The stream of charity pitches arriving in my mail is hitting new highs this season. Recently, nearly two dozen solicitations arrived in one week alone, from appeals for Haiti earthquake victims to solicitations from animal-rescue groups. One reason, no doubt, is that I am an impulsive giver who writes lots of small checks to many charities, landing me on numerous mailing lists.

Another reason, however, a new study suggests, may be that I am female.

Recent research by the Women's Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University shows a striking pattern: Female-headed households top male-headed households in philanthropic giving in almost every income group.

'It is not only wealthy women who give,' says Debra Mesch, the director of the Institute. 'Women across nearly every incomecategory give significantly more than their male counterparts in many cases, nearly twice as much.' Among households making more than $103,000 a year, women donate an average $1,910 a year, compared with $984 for men. Meanwhile, among households making less than $23,509 annually" target="_blank" title="ad.每年；按年计算">annually, women give an average of $540 a year, compared with $281 by men.

Only in homes with annualincome of $23,509 to $43,500 a year do male heads of households out-donate their female counterparts, says the study. At first I suspected women in such families may give less because of the financial pressures of the juggle, paying for child care and so on. But researchers controlled for child-care costs, Dr. Mesch told me. The Institute plans to study data from other years to see if the pattern persists.

The study doesn't look at giving by married couples because the large 2007 data set it uses doesn't distinguish between male and female giving within a single household. Nevertheless, its findings break new ground, because it is the first comparison of giving by men and women in a nationally representative sample.

I found the results surprising. For one thing, women are often described as lousy tippers. On the other hand, studies show a higher percentage of women than men attend church, a place where many focus their charitable giving. And other studies suggest women assign a higher priority to charity. A recent Red Cross survey showed 86% of women say giving to someone less fortunate is an important part of their holidaytradition; only 69% of men hold that belief.

Readers, do you see women donating more to charity than men? Do women in your family give more than the men? Why do you think the research shows this pattern?