WTW's Manjit Basi discusses women's wealth outcomes

WTW Senior Director, Integrated & Global Solutions, Manjit Basi, discusses the role of gender in wealth equity.

Alongside Director, Integrated & Global Solutions, Mark Mann, Manjit looks at theWTW 2022 Global Gender Wealth Equity Report. "There are ways that employers can lead real and lasting change to address gender inequity, close the gender wealth gap, and improve women's wealth outcomes," shares Manjit.

A significant gender wealth gap exists between women and men at retirement

Gender inequity is a long-standing issue affecting women throughout their working lives. Often gender inequity assessments are made through a single lens of pay, career, pensions or leadership representation, but the reality is that the inequity is multidimensional and should be studied as such.

New flagship research from WTW and the World Economic Forum found that there is a significant gender wealth gap between men and women at retirement. Upon retirement women globally are expected to accumulate only 74% of the wealth that men have, according to WTW's Wealth Equity Index.

WTW's Global Gender Wealth Equity Report explores differences in gender wealth equity across five regions worldwide, analyzing reasons for the disparity – including the interlinked effects of career, family support, life events and financial literacy on wealth accumulation. We also share actions employers can take to help improve gender equity.

What is the Wealth Equity Index?

The Wealth Equity Index – developed in collaboration with the World Economic Forum – takes a holistic view of gender inequities across women’s lifetimes and quantifies the gender wealth gap between men women at retirement. It substantiates that women are at considerable disadvantage in the accumulation of wealth at the end of their career.

It substantiates that women are at considerable disadvantage in the accumulation of wealth at the end of their career.

There has been an increasing focus on eliminating gender discrimination through the recent environmental, social and governance (ESG) awakening and corporate efforts to further diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

While these forces have helped narrow the gender pay gap and underrepresentation of women in board and leadership roles, the Global Gender Wealth Equity Report found widely varying gaps in women’s accumulated wealth at retirement by market compared to men. Among the key findings:

The average global Wealth Equity Index across the 39 markets included in the analysis is 0.74.
Primary drivers contributing to gender-based wealth disparity include gender pay gaps and delayed career trajectories.
Women in senior and leadership positions have the largest gaps in accumulated wealth.

Each region has a unique story

There is a significant variation of gender wealth equity globally by region and market, influenced in part by diversity of cultures, traditions, relative prosperity and social equality.

The full report delves into the unique pressures influencing gender wealth at a regional and local level, looking specifically at the impact of career/pay, family support, life events, and financial factors.