By Jessica List

March 8 marks International Women’s Day and celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

The campaign theme for this year is ‘Choose To Challenge’. The reason this has been chosen is that the organisers recognise that a challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change.

It is amazing to think that International Women’s Day is over 100 years old, the first gathering was in 1911. Much has changed over this time but according to the World Economic Forum, none of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t all try and play a part, no matter how large or small.

For me, the challenges facing women saving for the long term are a real concern. In fact, there are five pension statistics from research and surveys that I have seen over the past year that really demonstrate the challenges often faced by women when it comes to pensions and retirement planning. While I would stress that generalisations often aren’t helpful, I still believe there’s a lot to be learned from such statistics to help make savings and financial services more accessible, and to help improve outcomes for all.

1. The gender pay gap is almost non-existent for full time employees under age 40, but higher than 10% for older age groups. – Office for National Statistics, ‘Gender Pay Gap in the UK’ 2020

The ONS reports that a key reason for the differences between age groups is the low rate of women moving into higher paid roles after age 39. Still, it is reassuring that the pay gap is generally falling over time, giving hope that things will continue to improve.

2. 10% of non-retired women expect to have a household income of less than £10,000 a year in retirement, compared with 2% of men. 9% of women expect to have more than £50,000, compared with 22% of men. – interactive investor, ‘The Great British Retirement Survey’ 2020

Unfortunately statistics like this, from small surveys through to huge research projects alike, are not at all hard to find. While things are gradually improving there’s still a long way to go to level the playing field when it comes to women’s wages and pensions.

3. The private pension income of divorced women is approximately 58% of the UK average. – Pensions Policy Institute, ‘The Underpensioned Index’ 2020

This is particularly important given that there are also plenty of reports highlighting how infrequently pensions are discussed during divorce proceedings. Pensions are often among couples’ biggest assets, so it can have a significant and long-term effect when they aren’t taken into account.

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