Gender pensions gap - are women paying a parenthood penalty?

Trade body warns women face serious obstacles to saving enough for retirement as the gender pensions gap continues. Is raising a family having a detrimental impact on our pension pot?

Expectant and friends with babies sitting on bench
(Image credit: Getty)

This month, the government released official stats saying the gender pensions gap is around 35%. Women will retire with much smaller pots than men - yet they can expect to live longer and are likely to need more money to fund life after work, meaning they also face poverty in old age.

Now, the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) has joined in, warning women face serious obstacles that prevent them from building sufficient wealth for retirement.

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Kalpana Fitzpatrick

Kalpana is an award-winning journalist with extensive experience in financial journalism. She is also the author of Invest Now: The Simple Guide to Boosting Your Finances (Heligo) and children's money book Get to Know Money (DK Books).

Her work includes writing for a number of media outlets, from national papers, magazines to books.

She has written for national papers and well-known women’s lifestyle and luxury titles. She was finance editor for Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Red and Prima.

She started her career at the Financial Times group, covering pensions and investments.

As a money expert, Kalpana is a regular guest on TV and radio – appearances include BBC One’s Morning Live, ITV’s Eat Well, Save Well, Sky News and more. She was also the resident money expert for the BBC Money 101 podcast .

Kalpana writes a monthly money column for Ideal Home and a weekly one for Woman magazine, alongside a monthly 'Ask Kalpana' column for Woman magazine.

Kalpana also often speaks at events. She is passionate about helping people be better with their money; her particular passion is to educate more people about getting started with investing the right way and promoting financial education.