Theoretically, both men and women have equal opportunities for borrowing, investing, and saving. When it comes to planning for retirement, however, the disparities between men and women become particularly apparent. While retirement planning can be difficult for anyone, it is often particularly difficult for women.
Men, women, and couples all use the same math and retirement principles, but when a woman is preparing for retirement, there are additional challenges. Some of these are that women typically live longer, earn less over their lifetime, and have more challenges because of gender stereotypes, among others. These factors lead to the unfortunate reality that women are more likely than men to become poor after the age of 65.

The biggest retirement challenge for women is lifespan. Of course, the great news is that women have more life to live! There are, however, consequences to living longer. According to World Data Info, a 50-year-old woman in India still has almost 19 years to live, compared to 15 years for the typical male. Therefore, regardless of age, women must save for longer periods of retirement than men.
Additionally, if you're married to an older man, as many women are, there's a significant statistical possibility that you'll live longer than your partner and will be responsible for paying for your own household expenditures and medical care. This means that a high percentage of women will be required to play the role of sole financial decision-maker at some point in their life. In short, women’s extended life expectancy makes it more difficult for their savings to sustain them throughout their retirement.

A long-standing and continuing salary differential between females and males is another challenge that women face with respect to retirement. According to a UNWomen gender pay gap study from September, 2022, the average woman in India earns 35% less than her male counterpart. Of course, this disparity is a key factor in our ability to save for retirement and poses a number of difficulties that may affect our retirement.

Not only do women need to save more money for retirement due to our longer life spans but the income differential means that we are forced to save a higher percentage of our income to offset the fact that it is lower than our male counterparts. Additionally, women typically spend less time in the workforce, so we consequently have a shorter window of opportunity to make enough money to sustain ourselves in retirement.

Yet another challenge for women in saving for retirement is the traditional lower involvement of women in planning and that we lack knowledge of key financial issues, like household debt levels and retirement readiness, among others. This is largely due to lack of information and financial literacy about daily money management and long-term planning.

Many women do not have open conversations about money management in their own homes, either growing up or even when they are adults and married. As such, women who have been widowed or divorced may need to catch up quickly if they are suddenly required to handle all their financial decisions on their own. Even though many women have indicated that their goal before getting married was to share financial responsibilities equally, it seems that those good intentions were often put aside.

Overall, women tend to be slightly less prepared for retirement than their male counterparts, particularly given the disparities that were just outlined. Given this, many women in India need to re-think their financial priorities and develop plans that will provide them with financial security in their golden years. Although the statistics can be rather overwhelming, and there are definitive gender disparities that make saving for retirement more challenging for women, this does not mean that women will always experience financial hardship as they age. There are, indeed, numerous simple strategies that women can use to better prepare themselves for retirement, no matter when they start. The key is to get started today!

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