Women’s Day 2025: Accelerating Gender Pension Equality

International Women’s Day 2025 takes place on 8 March and this year, the IWD theme is “Accelerate Action”. Below, we explore what this means, and shed light on a pressing issue many working women face.

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Accelerating Action for Gender Equality: The Focus of Women’s Day 2025

While women face workplace challenges every day, International Women’s Day serves as a reminder that celebrating women once a year isn’t enough—we need to commit to meaningful change every day. The IWD theme for 2025 is “Accelerate Action”, focusing on the urgency at which change needs to occur.

This women’s day theme is particularly relevant, especially given that current estimations suggest full gender parity won’t be achieved until 2158. This constitutes a staggering five generations from now and highlights why acceleration must be prioritised.

Notably, financial security and retirement savings are areas where women remain significantly disadvantaged and where slow progress is particularly evident. The UK pension gap is a stark reflection of broader workplace inequalities, reinforcing the need for swift, targeted action.

Understanding the Gender Pension Gap: Why Women Retire with Less

Currently, in the UK, women typically retire with anything between 35% and 50% less retirement savings than men. This disparity is often referred to as the “gender pension gap”, and experts believe we are still decades away from closing it if current trends continue. While many factors contribute to the lower pension for women, some of the key ones include the following.

  • The gender pay gap causes women to earn less than men on average, meaning they make lower pension contributions throughout their careers.
  • Part-time work and career breaks, such as maternity leave, can lead to significant reductions in women’s overall pension accumulation.
  • Employer pension contributions, which are often based on a percentage of salary, can disproportionately affect women due to the gender pay gap, leading to lower overall pension savings.

Despite these systemic issues, female employees can take proactive steps to improve their retirement security and close the UK pension gap.

Women’s Day 2025: How Female Employees Can Accelerate Pension Equality

With the theme of International Women’s Day 2025 in mind, female employees must understand what they can do to help accelerate equality for themselves.

Maximising Contributions and Employer Support

Since pension for women is still lower than that for men, it’s vital to start saving early and maximise contributions. An effective way to counter inequality is to contribute more than the minimum requirement. In doing so, female workers can potentially take advantage of employer matching schemes, should they be available. This will help lessen the effects of the gender pay gap, especially if contributions begin early. As an individual’s salary increases, they should ensure their pension contributions reflect this growth to help build long-term financial stability.

Shared Parental Leave and Career Breaks

Another key element female employees should consider concerns shared parental leave. Such policies lessen the burden on women to take on all caring responsibilities and ensure the impacts of career breaks are shared equally. This can help women accumulate better retirement savings throughout their employment, which is more in line with their male counterparts.

That being said, even during career breaks, it’s critical that women don’t forget about their pensions. Even if it’s just a small amount, maintaining voluntary contributions during such periods can ultimately help lower the gender pension gap.

What’s more, if a working spouse wishes to help their partner maintain pension savings during a career break, they can contribute to their partner’s personal pension within the legal limits. Currently, a non-earning partner’s pension allowance is £3,600.

Protecting Pension Rights During Divorce and Retirement Planning

While divorce is something one hopes will never happen to them, it’s wise women understand their rights should it ever arise. Research shows that a third of divorced women make no claim on their former partner’s pension, leaving them financially vulnerable. To avoid this, women must ensure pension assets are included in divorce settlements and consider legal advice.

Furthermore, while work pensions help with retirement, female employees mustn’t forget about their state benefits. State Pensions are crucial for financial security during retirement, and women should check their National Insurance (NI) contributions to ensure eligibility for the full amount. They should also plan ahead to make sure they receive the highest possible payout.

The Role of Employers in Closing the Gender Pension Gap

Although Women’s Day 2025 provides the opportunity to inform employees about their rights and actionable steps to improve their circumstances, it also encourages employers to take responsibility for improving gender equality.

One such example is the UK pension gap, where employers can enhance workplace policies to help reduce it. By providing more than the minimum required contributions and offering financial education programmes, companies can ensure their workforce, particularly female employees, have better financial security for when they retire.

In addition, by encouraging shared parental leave and making the practice less taboo, employers can do their part in preventing career breaks from disproportionately affecting women. However, if female employees decide to take on caring responsibilities, flexible working arrangements are another way employers can help lessen the effects.

Finally, since the gender pension gap stems from the gender pay gap, efforts should be made to address the latter. Among other things, this could include salary reviews, where employers ensure female employees are paid equitably in comparison to their male colleagues.

Taking Action Against Workplace Inequality Ahead of Women’s Day 2025

Women’s Day 2025 will help bring us another step closer to complete gender parity. Unfortunately, until such time, many women will likely still face gender inequality in the workplace.

If you have experienced gender discrimination at work or have any queries, please contact us now. Redmans Solicitors are employment law specialists, and following a quick chat, we can answer your questions and discuss your possible next steps.

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