Women do not accumulate sufficient funds in their retirement as men do and one of the factors affecting this is relationships.
Motherhood
If a woman chooses to have children during her lifetime, this has been seen to negatively impact the growth of future earnings. We already know about the gender pay gap but what is even more worrying are the findings in a study conducted by Joya Misra, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amhers with the assistance of two economist. In this study, they found that not only was there a gender pay gap, but that there was a further disparity between incomes of women with and women without children, despite their education and experience levels. This is the motherhood wage gap.
Single parenthood
The Investments and Wealth Institute released a report titled ‘Women and Retirement Security’ where they found that 80% of single parent families in the United States were headed. In South Africa, 61.7% of births registered last year were missing the father’s details. It could then possibly be that most of those women would be raising their children alone. This naturally has major financial implications.
Women are more likely to be caregivers.
The same report from the Investment and Wealth Institute found that women are more likely than men to be caregivers and less likely to have a family caregiver themselves. This affects wealth accumulation over time.
With this information at hand, it becomes imperative for women to prioritize their finances long before, and during, the effects of motherhood and the various other stages of their relationships. If women were able to anticipate these life stages well in advance and to plan for them effectively, we just may tip the scales in their favour regarding their finances.