Scottish Widows Women and Retirement Report 2025

That 32% gap is a stark reflection of the realities of unequal pay, career breaks when having children, lack of shared parental leave and wider structural differences that have worked against women.

Arguably the biggest driver of the gap is the impact of taking a break from working to raise a family on a woman’s career, income and pension contributions.

Half of all women take time out of work during their careers, compared to just one in five men. Many leave the workforce for five years or more. During that time, pension contributions are paused, often without an understanding of the long-term impact. Emergency savings take priority. Investment opportunities are missed. And retirement planning is pushed to the bottom of the list.

Health, too, plays a critical role. Life stages like the menopause can have a profound effect on women’s financial wellbeing throughout their lives – yet these challenges are too often left out of the conversation.

Despite this, there is cause for optimism.

Younger women are most likely to see the potential in the government’s proposed ‘targeted support’ digital-first services which can provide financial guidance throughout their lives. With fewer assets and less need for financial advisers, this is a generation ready to take control of their financial futures if we can provide the right tools and support.

Alongside this year’s report, we’re incredibly proud to launch our new Career Break Modelling Tool. It’s designed to help everyone – and especially women – understand the long-term financial cost of stepping away from work and to plan with confidence for the future.

They can explore how different choices affect their retirement savings, identify ways to boost their pension and understand how investing can help them build wealth.

Because when women are given the right tools, knowledge, and support, we don’t just close gaps. We help them create more secure futures.

Jill Henderson, Head of Workplace Strategic Relationships

Reform Auto-Enrolment

Within the pensions system, reforms to auto-enrolment could allow those working part-time, or juggling multiple jobs to benefit from pension contributions, including contributions from their employer where they themselves are unable to save at that point in time.

Enhance visibility of annuities

Reform is also needed to the way in which annuities are presented to the public by making joint life annuities more prominent, and greater prominence needs to be given to pension pots in divorce discussions.

Improve pension decision-making support

In this year’s research women have told us that they need better decision-making support. A new framework from the FCA could make this possible. Termed ‘Targeted Support’ this will allow retirement experts to propose a good course of action without having to levy and advice charge. Targeted Support conversations could be developed by industry to tackle specifically the challenges faced by women.

Flexible retirement solutions for self-employed women

We see that self-employed women are making the best preparations. Separate research which we conducted amongst the self-employed suggested that a regime equivalent to Auto Enrolment for the self-employed would be welcomed. However, its design would need to recognise the need for greater flexibility in terms of when money can be put away for retirement, and greater flexibility as to when it sometimes needs to be accessed.

Integrating housing equity into retirement planning

Increasingly people will get to retirement and find that their pension preparations alone have not been sufficient to allow them to retire as early as they wanted, or to enjoy the standard of living that they had hoped for. Housing equity could play a major role in bridging the gap for many. The impact of divorce settlements and higher life expectancy means that women can end up with significant property wealth. The role of housing equity needs to be comprehensively integrated into retirement planning throughout life. This would be disproportionately beneficial to women.

Jill celebrates 27 years at Scottish Widows this year, having spent most of this time in and around Workplace Pensions.

Most recently Jill took on the role as Head of Workplace Strategic Relationships, building relationships with Financial advisers, consultancies and workplace clients.

Previous roles include Head of Workplace Business Development, and Partnership Director.

Jill has a long-standing passion for financial equality, is Chair of the Sottish Widows Women and Retirement workstream and sits on the Advisory Board of Her Wealth Network.

Maria Herrero Bullich leads the Chief Customer & Digital Office (CCDO) within Insurance, Pensions & Investments at Scottish Widows.

Under Maria’s leadership, data-driven personalisation is helping women and younger audiences feel seen and empowered, while inclusive design and empathetic digital experiences are at the heart of every innovation. Her team combines insight, technology, and creativity to make financial planning simpler, fairer, and more relevant for all.

With over 20 years in the insurance industry, Maria has held senior roles across Motor, Home, Life, and Business insurance. She is passionate about building diverse, high-performing teams and championing gender equality in financial services. Maria believes collaboration across industry, technology, and policy is essential to closing the gender pension gap.

Susan Hope is a Chartered Financial Planner and Business Development Director at Scottish Widows, where she leads a business development team focused on workplace pensions and employee engagement.

With over three decades of experience in the financial services industry, Susan is a passionate champion for closing the gender pension gap and empowering women to build financial resilience. Her advocacy recently took her to the House of Lords, where she spoke on the critical importance of financial wellbeing for women across the UK.

Combining personal insight with deep professional expertise, Susan is a regular contributor to both trade and consumer media. She frequently speaks on the intersection of money, motherhood, and the financial lessons often missed.

Susan currently holds the title of Women in Financial Advice Role Model of the Year (2023 & 2024) and was recently honoured as Diversity and Inclusion Advocate for Women in Finance by Business Women Scotland.

Pete is the Head of Policy, Pensions and Investments at Scottish Widows, part of Lloyds Banking Group’s Insurance and Wealth division.

Pete has worked at Lloyds Banking Group for 36 years, holding a wide range of senior positions, including Head of Individual Pension Propositions and Head of Workplace Pension Propositions before taking on the pensions policy brief 11 years ago.

Pete is on the Pensions Panel at the CBI, the Strategy Council at TISA and the DC Committee at Pensions UK, in addition to numerous industry and trade body working groups.

Rebecca is an Engagement Consultant within the Workplace Strategic Relationships team at Scottish Widows, working at the heart of member engagement across workplace pensions.

Rebecca’s spans both digital and face-to-face engagement, including webinars, benefits fairs, and tailored client events and also contributes to client strategy plans, ensuring engagement solutions are aligned with client needs and workforce demographics.

She is also a passionate contributor to the Women in Retirement campaign, helping shape the narrative around financial empowerment for women, and particularly engaging the younger generation to plan for their financial future and help close the gap.

Lily leads the design team behind the Scottish Widows app, creating experiences that are simple, emotionally engaging, and delightful.

Her mission is to meet customers where they are, make it easy for them to achieve what matters most, and leave them feeling confident and in control.

Passionate about enabling everyone in the UK to secure a better financial future, Lily champions experience-led design as the strategy to turn that ambition into reality.