With August being Women’s Month in South Africa, my newsfeed is flooded with advice for women. This is where I’ve had an aversion to Women’s Month. Most financial advice for women centres around encouraging women to be more responsible with money and to show more interest in their financial wellbeing.
The research points to a different problem. The Discovery Corporate and Employee Benefits August 2025 analysis found South African women retire with 21% less than men in pension and provident fund savings. Yet, Discovery found that women are 1,2 times more likely than men to contribute above their employer’s default retirement rate. It’s not a savings problem.
Discovery’s data shows women earn 76 cents for every rand men earn, a 24% pay gap. Global studies confirm this pay gap.
This motherhood penalty continues to exist in society. But it is not what it looks like. According to the Payscale 2026 report, mothers earn 74 cents for every dollar fathers earn. Yet compare a mother and a father doing the same job at the same level, and they are paid almost the same. The gap accumulates in the years before it, in the roles mothers are funnelled into and the promotions they are never offered.
Women in high-wage professions experience a wider gender gap specifically because they’re penalised for not working the long, inflexible hours those roles demand. Somehow, absent fathers are acceptable to society, but absent mothers are not, and the price for family responsibility is not equally paid by men and women.
The pay gap does not only widen for mothers, but it also widens with age for women. Older women earn 39% less than men. This is likely due to fewer promotion opportunities. Menopause is a likely contributor to this gap because this physiological transition typically coincides with career progression into senior roles. The stigma of menopause and the lack of support for the physical challenges women face at this stage seem to be the blocks.
From my own experience through menopause, I know that the challenges are not limited to the stereotypical night sweats and mood swings. Menopause affects every aspect of a woman’s life. One study showed that 27% of women say menopause has negatively affected their career progression.
I also know that you come out on the other side. Now, beyond the intense mothering years and post-menopause transition, I feel a renewed sense of purpose and newfound energy for my work.
Fortunately, awareness and understanding of the menopause transition point to improved financial outcomes for women in the future.
Whatever the reason for the persistent pay gap, the problem is that women need more money than men to retire because women generally live longer than men. This is not a problem that women can or should fix. Society should fix it. It should become unacceptable to society that women are expected to end up worse off.
However, women should be aware of these structural headwinds and be prepared to have the conversations that will bridge their individual pay gaps. Sadly, it still comes down to us moving the needle together for ourselves and the future of our daughters, one step at a time.
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Kind regards,
Sunél
