The New Social Contract: Achieving Retirement Equality for Women
Around the world, the persistent gender pay gap fuels long-term financial inequalities and higher rates of poverty in retirement for women. Traditional societal norms and gender roles also place women at a disadvantage in terms of saving and planning for retirement. Juggling employment and unpaid parenting and caregiving responsibilities, women often take time out of the workforce or work part-time. The consequences of doing so extend beyond lost income. It negatively affects a woman’s lifetime earnings, her savings, long-term compounding of investments, and even her employer-sponsored and government retirement benefits. Moreover, women tend to live longer than men, which implies the need to prepare for longer retirements and save even more.
Amid widespread concerns about the financial sustainability of social security and retirement systems around the world, a new social contract for retirement is needed. A new social contract must address the changes taking place in the world today and embrace the social and economic realities of tomorrow. It must honor the principles of solidarity and sustainability and be adaptable for our ever-changing times – and it must achieve gender equality.
The New Social Contract: Achieving retirement equality for women highlights the gravity of these challenges. With the dawn of a new decade, the research report looks at steps women can take to improve their retirement preparedness. It also sets forward recommendations for employers and governments to take an active approach in reducing the retirement preparedness gender gap, paving the way to a more equal future retirement landscape.
Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies collaborated with Instituto de Longevidade MAG and Aegon on this report which is based on a global survey of 16,000 workers and retirees in 15 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.