Nearly two thirds (61 per cent) of women believe maternity will adversely affect pension saving, while 41 per cent are concerned about the impact that employment breaks have on pension accrual, according to research from the Pensions Management Institute (PMI).

The survey found that 61 per cent of working women have taken a career break, almost all these women having taken maternity leave, with 49 per cent having been away from work for less than a year and 20 per cent being absent for between one and five years.

As a result of this, 54 per cent of women polled worry about the impact of their career breaks on their retirement, with the PMI warning that women continue to face "serious obstacles" to adequate pension saving.

The PMI also pointed out that most employed women will be dependent on their pension savings to fund their retirement, revealing that 60 per cent have no other retirement savings.

In addition to this, just over a third (36 per cent) of working women know how much they have saved in their pension and the average pension savings for those women who do know how much they have saved was £23,959.

In contrast, just 4 per cent of female employees had saved more than £55,000 in pension savings.

The PMI suggested that the results of the survey also support the findings of the Department for Work and Pensions' recent research, which showed women reach age 55 with a third less saved into private pensions than men.

PMI president, Sara Cook, highlighted the findings of demonstration of the concerns of many women about their retirement prospects, arguing that "far too many are concerned about facing a bleak retirement as a consequence of raising children".

“The survey is clear that many women are very worried about how to combine the roles of motherhood and employee without suffering significantly in retirement," she continued.

However, Cook noted that there are ways to help address these concerns, with nearly half of those surveyed suggesting that better childcare support would enable them to return to work – giving them an opportunity both to be more productive and to make better preparation for life when employment has ended.

She continued: “In Scandinavian countries, women do not suffer any loss of earnings as a consequence of maternity leave. It is disappointing that in 2023 women are still concerned about what they might have to sacrifice to bring up a family.

"If the root of the gender pensions gap is due to career breaks for women to bring up children, then at a societal level, the gender bias and widely held presumption that women should have the primary child-raising role needs to be addressed.

"This bias needs to be challenged so that both men and women have equal opportunity to care for their children without penalty.”

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