Women could be faced with a significant retirement shortfall as the gap between both attitudes towards saving and savings levels widens with men as they get older.

That was the conclusion of a retirement report this week, which made the warning despite the positive signs from women in their 20s in terms of their saving habits.

Scottish Widows’ findings showed that whilst 26% of women and 30% of men in their 20s thought they were preparing adequately or more than adequately for retirement, this four percentage point gap increased by a further 11 percentage points in the 30s.

By this point, 48% of men believed they were saving adequately, compared to just 31% of women.

{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}

Additionally, while the number of women expecting a big shortfall in retirement shoots up by 10 percentage points between their 20s and 40s, the proportion of men expecting a shortfall rose by just 3% over the same period.

This is a reversal of the trends seen during their 20s, when men are more worried than women about their retirement income failing to meet their needs.

The levels of optimism shown by women in early adult years were mirrored by their saving habits, as women pay more into workplace schemes than men in their 20s. Of those paying into a workplace pension scheme, men have been putting away an average of £93.26, whilst women are saving around £180.36 at this age. However, despite positive signs of early engagement, saving levels then drop as women get older, whilst men put away more.

The findings also revealed that women with children worry more about their finances than men, as 37% of women with 1-3 dependent children feel pessimistic about their long-term financial future versus 26% of men in the same position.

Aside from feelings about saving and preparing for retirement, 35% of women with 1-3 children also felt pessimistic about their short-term financial situation, compared to 22% of men.

Jackie Leiper, retirement expert at Scottish Widows, said: “When it comes to attitudes towards retirement saving, young men and women appear to be almost on a par, yet our research has identified an alarming divergence in the 30s which needs to be addressed.

“Whether it’s having a family, taking a career break or changing working patterns, we need to ensure that these life changes impacting women do not jeopardise their future security.

“This is particularly important given the decision to freeze the auto-enrolment threshold at £10,000, which is estimated to have excluded around 170,000 people from auto-enrolment, of whom 120,000 (69 per cent) are women.”

Gulnur Muradoglu, professor of finance and director of the Behavioural Finance Working Group at Queen Mary University of London, said: “The fact that women save more than men in their twenties and then drop off in their thirties is actually reflective of their behaviour and attitudes towards their finances in general.

“By nature, women are more conservative and risk-averse than men, so as they are aware that they are going to be less likely to save in their thirties due to the impact of career breaks, women ensure that they are plugging this gap by ramping up saving in their twenties.”