The pension industry needs to ensure the message, messenger, and moment fit together to make sure women feel empowered and inspired to act and close the gender pension gap, Scottish Widows business development director, Susan Hope, has said.

Speaking at the Pensions UK Annual Conference 2026, Hope explored the drivers behind the gender pensions gap and efforts that could be undertaken to tackle this challenge.

In particular, she highlighted peer-to-peer learning, utilising data and recognising life stages as some key factors that could help close the gap.

She also stressed the importance of collaboration versus competition, noting that if work and tools are gatekept, then progress will be hindered.

“Let’s get really clear about how our women are experiencing our [pension] policies because that combination of data and life experience is hugely powerful. And the data will tell us where the gaps are, but the women will tell you why they exist,” Hope said.

“And if we see our journeys through that lens, we can start to create equity within our organisations and not wait for it to come from structural change.”

Scottish Widows head of workplace strategic relationships, Jill Henderson, also highlighted that work on the gender pension gap is not a competition and acknowledged that the more data the industry has and the more it is spoken about, the better outcomes will be achieved.

However, she warned that the data has never been the endgame, but instead it is to have no gender pension gap.

“The endgame is not having to stand up and talk about these things because we have cracked it as a society,” she argued.

But Henderson acknowledged the size of the issue, noting that in order to create change on the gender pension gap “it's going to take the full pensions village”.

Henderson said that although there is now a strong awareness around the gender pensions gap and general ideas around the impact of it, the real-life human consequences are forgotten.

In light of this, she argued the case for policy conversation extending beyond contribution rates.

“When I talk about closing the gender pension gap, policy conversation must extend beyond pension contribution rates alone. The gap is a vulnerability gap, and it's caused by societal norms that we need to address,” Henderson said.

Hope highlighted work that Scottish Widows recently conducted on vulnerability, which found that vulnerability no longer a minority factor.

Indeed, the research showed that 60 per cent of people have a vulnerability according to the Financial Conduct Authority’s definition, with the figure rising to 71 per cent for single mothers.

As a result of this, Hope said that the industry needs to ask itself if inclusive design is at the centre of absolutely everything it does.

“Can [members] understand if they're using assistive technologies, if they're working shifts, if they can't get easy access to digital communications, if English is not the first language?” she said.

“I know that's a lot, but we really need to be thinking about that via the gender lens for the women's moments that matter when those life decisions turn into financial decisions.”

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