09 Jul 2025

Three midlife challenges that can impact women – and how employers can help

How can employers support women when midlife challenges such as caring responsibilities or divorce disrupt their financial wellbeing?

Far from feeling settled, people in their 40s and 50s can experience just as many major life events as younger generations.

While those in their 20s and 30s may be reaching for milestones like building up a career, getting on the property ladder, or starting a family, midlife is a time when significant life changes can spring up – which can have a big impact on their financial wellbeing.

In fact, insights from Standard Life’s Retirement Voice 2024 report reveal that just 38% of Gen Xers (those aged 44–59) are positive about their finances – the least positive than any other generation.

They’re also the least confident about their retirement income options (38% are confident about this).

For women, those figures drop even further, with just 34% feeling good about their money and 31% feeling confident about their options for retirement income.

This suggests that, for women in their midlife years, their financial wellbeing is taking a hit.

So what what can employers do to support women’s financial wellbeing?

Gender pay and pension gaps

The first midlife challenge that typically affects women is the gender pay gap.

Although it’s narrowed in recent years, according to the most recent figures by the ONS the gender pay gap stands at 7% and this is higher for employees over 40.

This is because more women than men are likely to work part-time or take career breaks due to factors such as caring responsibilities and menopause.

This means fewer working hours and therefore lower pay.

With lower pay usually comes lower pension contributions, as these are usually based on a percentage of someone’s salary.

In addition, the auto-enrolment threshold is £10,000 a year.

So for some part-time employees, they may not earn enough to be enrolled into their workplace pension scheme.

This in turn causes the gender pension gap, which is the difference in retirement income between men and women.

According to the most recent Government figures, women tend to have 35% less pension savings to retire on than men.

To compound this problem, women live on average around four years more than men – and have to make a smaller retirement pot stretch further.

Parenthood

Caring responsibilities like parenthood can have a big impact on women’s pensions, depending on how – or if – they choose to return to work.

For example, if they decide to go back to work full-time, they can continue paying into their pension as before and continue to benefit from their employer contributions.

Or, if they return to work doing reduced hours, they’ll continue to get pension contributions, but these will be based on lower pay.

That means the contributions going in will be lower, and the eventual pension pot will be smaller.

And if they choose to give up work all together to focus on parenthood, they’ll no longer have contributions going into their pension unless they choose to make some themselves.

This is another reason why women tend to have lower salaries and lower retirement savings than men – and another challenge for them to consider when deciding what options are available, and how this could affect their wider financial wellbeing.

Divorce

Another midlife challenge that can have a significant impact on women’s financial wellbeing is divorce.

The latest available data from the ONS shows the average age at which a woman gets divorced is 44.

According to the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement Caught in a Gap report, it’s at this point that the monthly pension contribution gap starts to peak.

Between the ages of 45 to 54, men are paying in an average of £245 versus £165 for women.

Furthermore, research carried out by Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing shows that married men have the greatest pension wealth, with those aged 45-54 having a median pension wealth of about £86,000 – compared with £40,000 for women.

Yet when it comes to dividing up their assets, research by Age UK found that pensions frequently get left out of settlements, leaving one partner – usually the woman – at risk of being made worse off in later life.

Combined, these can compound the existing gender pension gap even further – and puts women’s future financial wellbeing into a precarious position.

Tips to support women’s financial wellbeing

It’s clear that several factors are at play which can negatively affect women’s finances in their midlife years and beyond.

As an employer, you’re in a unique position to provide support that can build up women’s financial knowledge and resilience, and help minimise some of the financial disruption they could encounter at key life moments. Here are some ideas that could help:

1. Check the budget

A change in priorities at midlife – such as taking on caring responsibilities or children leaving for university – could put a strain on women’s finances.

That’s why it’s important for them to review their budget on a regular basis, so they can have a clear eye on what money is coming in and going out.

The chances are their budget will need resetting to reflect the shift in priorities.

You could help by signposting employees to online resources like MoneyHelper, which has budgeting tools to help them categorise their spending.

Standard Life workplace pension scheme members can also use Money Mindset to get a real-time view of their outgoings, and use the Budget Planner to organise their finances.

2. Review family finances

When it comes to family financial planning, there’s a lot for employees to navigate – from teaching their children about money to supporting them through university or preparing them for their first job, and everything in between.

There’s a lot of online support available that could help your employees manage their family’s finances, including Money Helper’s dedicated Family & Care resources.

If you’re with Standard Life for your workplace pension scheme, employees can also use our Family Finance Hub, an all-in-one coaching platform that gives them the tools and support they need to confidently guide their families through life’s key financial stages.

It also gives them valuable insights into their own finances to help enhance their financial wellbeing.

3. Tackle any debt

For many women, their midlife years can bring increased debt, particularly from mortgages and credit cards.

Employees facing financial stress may feel unsure about how to manage their debt or where to seek support.

You can help by signposting to resources such as MoneyHelper, which offers free and easy-to-understand guidance.

It can help employees prioritise which debts to address first, explore repayment options, and connect with professional advisers for tailored support.

This article is based on Standard Life’s The Family and Work Juggle Good Money Moods webinar. Employees can watch on demand here.

To find out more about Standard Life’s webinars, click here.

The information here is based on our understanding in June 2025. Standard Life accepts no responsibility for information on external websites. These are provided for general information.