The study, based on 250,000 men and women, found the number of female applications rose from 9% in March 2006 to nearly 35% in March 2007.
The rise came as Office of National Statistics (ONS) research* for socio/economic trends in 2006 showed an increase in the number of lone families, with nine out of ten being headed by a woman.
Steve Teague, managing direct at Click, commented: “Our figures are all the more surprising as male submissions plunged from almost 92 per cent to just below 71 per cent of total applications during the same period. A logical spin-off of this trend is that women are adopting traditional male roles like arranging life cover and dealing with wider aspects of the household budget, and the facts and figures from our research, backed up by the ONS report, suggest that even single parent families are waking up to the fact that it is sensible to have a life cover policy in place.”