Every August, as the country observes Women’s Month, we hear the same old rhetoric about gender pay gaps and how women need to save more. While both remain true, South African women claim to have saved more on average than their male counterparts by almost half a million rand.
According to the Human Sciences Research Council and the South African Institute of Race Relations, more than 40% of South African mothers are single parents. Heather Bell, business development manager at Just SA, says it is positive to see women taking strides in improving their financial literacy and independence, and being able to provide better for retirement.
According to Bell, women typically face additional gender-related pressures as they head into retirement, such as less income to save and a longer life expectancy.Just SA’s statistics show life expectancy for a 65-year-old in South Africa to be 87 for women as opposed to 82 for men, with 25% of women aged 65 likely to reach 94 and a further 10% living to celebrate their 100th birthday.
The gender gap is not unique to our shores. Research recently conducted by the British financial services provider Legal & General, surveying more than 4.5 million savers in the UK, found that the gender pension gap was 16% at the beginning of women’s careers, reaching 55% at the point of retirement.
Charnel Collins, chief executive of National Debt Advisors, a debt counselling company, says that although no one has been immune to the financial devastation of the Covid pandemic, women took the brunt of the financial losses in the months following the initial lockdown.
Cos they're far more stingy than men, thats why.
Thanks for restoring my happiness in my dark days, During this period I invested $1500 and to my greatest surprise I got a return of $15,500. He's reliability can’t be equated _JamesAlderson