35% of working women are not confident that they can retire comfortably: Report

The majority of working adults around the world are not financially prepared for retirement, and women are much less prepared than men, according to a newly released report by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies in collaboration with the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement and Instituto de Longevidade Mongeral Aegon. The report, based on the findings of the annual Aegon Retirement Readiness Index, shows that even while educational parity between the genders has almost closed, educational attainment for women has not translated into better employment or greater earning power, and this in turn affects their ability to retire.

According to the report, 35 percent of working women are not confident that they can achieve a comfortable retirement; 67 percent think that they will achieve half or less of their needed retirement income. Only 60 percent are saving for their retirement; 38 percent are simply not earning enough to save at all.

A large part of the issue stems from societal pressures that push women out of the workforce, typically marital norms, parenting, or caregiving of various types. Their career advancement is affected as a result: globally, the report found that women are less likely than men to hold upper or intermediate managerial, administrative or professional roles. Instead, they are more likely to hold supervisory, clerical and junior managerial roles, all of which translate into generally lower earnings, lower lifetime income, and a more impoverished retirement. OECD data, for example, shows that women over the age of 65 years are 56 percent more likely to face poverty than men of similar age.

While the report highlights a series of retirement readiness fundamentals, including early saving, retirement planning, and lifelong learning, Catherine Collinson, CEO of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, pointed out that the effectiveness of these measures are severely limited by the very nature of how society pushes women to the sidelines of the workforce.

"It is imperative that women take greater control over their financial situation, but it must be recognized that they face formidable headwinds that can limit their ability to save, such as lower incomes and less access to employer-sponsored retirement benefits," Collinson said. "In order to achieve success, these structural inequalities must be addressed by a new social contract and the modernization of retirement systems around the world.