​Can we close the gender money gap?

Two recently launched initiatives tackle how we deal with money from a particular perspective – the financial divide between men and women. The first comes from Sarah Roughsedge, a chartered financial planner with a background in neuroscience. Her new book, Smart Money, Strong Women, is a personal finance guide built on years of working with female clients.

Sarah explains how women who were successful in other aspects of their lives would sit across from her and say: “I’m not very good with money.” Sarah argues the opposite is true – women can be very good with money, if given the chance, and if they allow themselves to give things like investing a go.

One of the ideas Sarah explores in her book is the “gender money gap”.

Systemic challenges like the gender pay gap are well documented, as is the impact on women of “squiggly” careers, owing to childcare and caring responsibilities. Men clearly help out too, but the burden and juggle of it all can come down harder on women.

But taking a career break isn’t just about lost salary, it’s about the “true cost” – the potential lost career progression and pension contributions.

Then there’s the need to save more to cover a longer lifetime. DWP data shows women aged 55 to 59 have an average private pension of £81,000, compared with £156,000 for men.

Sarah also points to the conventional wisdom of dialling down investment risk as you approach retirement, which doesn’t always chime with women whose careers and earnings are accelerating in later life.

The second initiative focuses on the gender pension gap, defined by investment platform AJ Bell as the difference in what women and men get from their pension in retirement.

Its polling of 2,000 UK adults found that men and women’s pension contributions start to diverge at age-28, with men putting retirement saving higher up their priority list. By 41, men and women tend to prioritise pension saving equally, but by then it can be hard, though not impossible, to catch up.

Respondents were also asked what they’d do differently with their finances if they were 28 again. Some women said they did what they could with what they had; others wished they’d put their own financial wellbeing first. Men, meanwhile, were more likely to wish they’d spent more on family experiences such as travel or a larger home.

What’s nice about Sarah’s book and the AJ Bell report is they offer practical strategies. These include learning about pensions early, having frank money talk at home, and making full use of tax benefits.

Another example is negotiating a career break as a sabbatical. This keeps career opportunities open and also protects vital pension contributions.

These initiatives aren’t about men versus women. It’s about understanding the reality, then making a plan. As one woman put it: “What women usually hear is ‘give up now and just drink prosecco, because you’re all doomed.” We can all do better than that.