The Retirement Gender Gap is Wider Than Most People Realize

A new national survey released this summer puts some striking numbers on a problem we see regularly in our practice. The Transamerica 26th Annual Retirement Survey , published in August 2026, examined retirement preparedness across more than 7,600 middle-class American households (people earning between $50,000 and $200,000 per year). When the researchers broke the data down by gender, the gaps were significant enough that we wanted to share the findings directly with the women business owners we work with, because the numbers have real implications for how you should be thinking about your own retirement.

 

The findings are not simply a story about income differences. They reflect a combination of factors that compound over decades: caregiving responsibilities, workforce interruptions, confidence gaps, reliance on Social Security, and under-use of professional financial guidance. For women business owners specifically, several of these dynamics play out in ways that are even more consequential, because your retirement is entirely self-funded. There is no employer plan, no match, no pension. What you build is what you have. Understanding where the gaps come from is the first step toward making sure you are not underbuilding.

 

The Numbers Tell a Clear Story

Women in middle-class households have a median of $49,000 in retirement savings, compared to $82,000 for men. That is a gap of more than $33,000, and it matters not just because it represents fewer dollars, but because women statistically live longer than men and therefore need those savings to stretch further. A smaller nest egg funding a longer retirement is a structural problem, not a bad-luck scenario.

 

The confidence numbers track closely with the savings numbers. Sixty-one percent of women report feeling confident they will be able to retire comfortably, compared to 77 percent of men. That 16-point gap is not surprising given the underlying data, but it does reflect a real and important difference in how women are experiencing the run-up to retirement. Seventy-nine percent of women say they are worried Social Security will not be available when they retire, versus 69 percent of men. Given that women are more likely to rely on Social Security as their primary retirement income source (31 percent versus 25 percent of men), that concern is well-founded.

 

Emergency savings tell the same story at the near-term end of the spectrum. Women have a median of $3,500 in emergency savings; men have $10,000. Eighteen percent of women report having no emergency savings at all. Without a cushion to absorb unexpected expenses, retirement savings accounts become the backstop, which means the gap at the top gets worse because of the gap at the bottom.

 

Caregiving is a Financial Issue, Not Just a Personal One

One of the most important findings in the survey is how caregiving responsibilities shape the financial picture. Among working respondents, 37 percent of women are serving as caregivers, compared to 34 percent of men. Among retirees, the gap is far more pronounced: 44 percent of women versus 28 percent of men. Women who are caregiving are also more likely to have adjusted their work arrangements to accommodate that role, taking part-time positions, reducing hours, declining promotions, or leaving the workforce temporarily.

 

Those adjustments have direct financial consequences. Fewer hours worked means lower retirement contributions. Time out of the workforce means missed employer matches and years of compounding growth that are simply gone. And women who step back from full-time work often do so during their peak earning years, which also affects their eventual Social Security benefit, since that calculation is based on the highest 35 years of indexed earnings. A gap of five or ten years in the workforce does not simply pause the retirement clock; it resets parts of it.

 

The survey also found that 50 percent of retired women left the workforce earlier than they had planned, compared to 45 percent of men. Among women who retired earlier than expected, 30 percent cited family reasons (caregiving for a spouse, parent, or child), compared to just 17 percent of men who gave the same answer. Retiring early by necessity rather than by choice means less time to save, less time for existing savings to grow, and a longer retirement to fund.

 

The Advisor Gap is Where the Problem Gets Fixable

Here is where the data gets actionable. Only 29 percent of women in the survey work with a professional financial advisor, compared to 38 percent of men. Given the complexity of the financial picture facing women, particularly those who have had career interruptions, who are managing caregiving costs, or who will be relying more heavily on Social Security, that gap matters enormously. Professional guidance is most valuable precisely when the financial situation is most complicated.

 

The survey also found that 55 percent of women are essentially guessing when it comes to their retirement savings target: they do not have a calculation, they have an intuition. Only 39 percent of men said the same. Guessing at a retirement number when you have a complicated income history, a longer expected lifespan, and a thinner emergency cushion is a high-risk approach. And yet it is remarkably common, and the survey data suggests it is disproportionately common among women.

 

Seventy-nine percent of men in the survey report having a working knowledge of personal finance, compared to 66 percent of women. That 13-point gap is consistent with broader research on financial confidence, and it is important to understand what it is and what it is not. It is not a gap in intelligence or capacity. It is a gap in access, in financial education that has historically been directed at men more than women, and in experience making certain kinds of financial decisions. It is a gap that closes quickly with the right guidance, but only if that guidance is sought.

 

For women business owners, the advisor gap is especially costly because you have access to retirement vehicles that most employees never see. A SEP-IRA, a Solo 401(k), or a defined benefit plan can allow you to contribute significantly more each year than a traditional workplace plan. But most business owners do not set these up proactively, and many who do set them up are not maximizing them. The contribution room is there; it just requires someone to run the numbers with you and make sure the structure matches your income and goals.

 

Inflation Has Made an Existing Problem Harder

The survey's findings on inflation reinforce the urgency of the broader picture. Seventy-seven percent of women say they have taken financial action in response to inflation in recent years, including reducing expenses, dipping into savings, or taking on additional income-earning work, compared to 68 percent of men. This is a meaningful difference. It means that women in middle-class households have been more likely to interrupt their savings trajectory to manage short-term cost pressures, which compounds over time just as savings do.

Dipping into savings to manage inflation, when those savings are already below where they need to be, is exactly the kind of decision that looks necessary in the short term and costly over a 20-year period. It is also exactly the kind of decision where a financial advisor can offer perspective: are there other levers to pull first? What is the actual cost of drawing from that account now, in terms of forgone growth and tax implications? Those conversations do not happen when someone is managing their finances alone.

 

What This Means for Women Business Owners

At RYBD, we work primarily with business owners, and a meaningful portion of our practice is women who are running their own firms, practices, or companies. What we have seen over the years tracks closely with this data. The women business owners we work with are sharp, capable, and running complex operations. They are also, more often than not, undersaving for retirement, underfunded on emergency reserves, and spending more time thinking about their business finances than their personal ones. That is not a character flaw. It is a predictable outcome of building a business, and it is fixable.

 

The Transamerica findings are useful because they put aggregate numbers on patterns we recognize. The business owner who is 50, has a solid company, a thin emergency fund, and a retirement account she has not looked at since she opened it: she is not behind because she made poor choices. She is behind because running a business takes everything, and retirement planning is the thing that keeps getting pushed. What she needs is not a lecture about where she is; it is a clear picture of what is possible from here, and a team that can help her get there without making it more complicated than it needs to be.

 

If any of this resonates with where you are right now, we would welcome a conversation. The kind of planning that changes the outcome for women business owners rarely involves dramatic moves. It usually involves getting the structure right, making better use of the tools you already have access to, and building the habit of treating your personal finances with the same rigor you bring to your business.

 

 

Source: Transamerica 26th Annual Retirement Survey, August 2026. Survey of 7,606 U.S. adults in households with annual income of $50,000 or more, conducted September–October 2025.

 

Rhodes, Young, Black & Duncan, CPA | Duluth, GA