Pensions system ‘built for men’ leaves women facing retirement crisis

Women are being left exposed in retirement by a pensions system designed around male career paths, according to a new report calling for an overhaul of pensions policy and financial advice.

Research from the University of Edinburgh, supported by wealth manager Evelyn Partners, has revealed that by age 60 men have accumulated 75% more pension wealth than women, which it described as a looming “pensions timebomb”.

Nearly 15 million people in the UK are not saving enough for retirement, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), with women disproportionately affected. By age 59, men hold an average of £75,000 in Defined Contribution (DC) pension wealth, now the most common type of private workplace pension. This compares to just £19,000 for women.

The report added that the pensions gap is often misdiagnosed. Rather than being driven by a lack of confidence among women, it says the gulf is actually rooted in systemic, social and situational factors — including lower lifetime earnings, career breaks for childcare, part-time work, and the unequal burden of unpaid care.

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Women also shoulder far more of the “mental load” of family life, the report said. Office for National Statistics (ONS) data highlighted that women spend an extra hour a day on visible childcare and housework and carry out 73% of cognitive labour, such as planning, organising and anticipating family needs.

That combination of time pressure and mental bandwidth leaves little capacity for sustained engagement with long-term financial planning, the study found.

“Historically, financial advice and pensions policy have centred on typically male, linear career trajectories and financial goals, rather than the multi-phase, care-interrupted lives many women navigate,” it said.

Dr Emily Shipp, a psychologist and Associate of the Edinburgh Futures Institute and author of It’s Not About Confidence: The Hidden Forces Shaping Women’s Financial Futures, said the prevailing narrative is seriously misleading.

“For too long, the ‘confidence gap’ narrative in financial advice and media reporting has masked the real drivers of the pensions gulf,” she said. “Mental load and time scarcity operate together, reducing both the time and cognitive space needed to engage with long-term financial decisions.”

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The report also criticised a pensions framework built around linear, uninterrupted careers, which fails to reflect modern working lives, particularly for women. As people live and work for longer, often across multiple careers, the system must evolve, the authors warn, or risk widespread financial insecurity in later life.

DC pensions, which require active decision-making around contributions, fund choices and consolidation, are poorly understood by much of the population. This complexity, the report says, compounds inequalities and contributes to lower overall pension wealth.

Emma Sterland, chief financial planning officer at Evelyn Partners, said the findings challenge “entrenched narratives around women and wealth” and highlight the need for a more inclusive financial system.

Without reform, warned Tobi Schneider, fintech sector lead at Edinburgh Innovations and co-director of the Compassion in Financial Services Hub, the UK faces a stark future. “With an ageing population, without action, we are sleepwalking into financial disaster for a large proportion of people.”

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