Blog: Breaking down barriers this International Women’s Day

For this year’s International Women’s Day, organisations and individuals are being urged to #EmbraceEquity – championing a world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

In doing so, it’s important to highlight the barriers many older women still face and consider what can be done to make equity a reality.

For instance, the gender pension gap - the difference in pension for female pensioners compared to male pensioners - is thought to be around 38%. And it is even wider for unpaid carers, disabled women, single mothers, women from ethnic minorities, and divorced women.

Historically, women have been disadvantaged by the pension system. While women tend to live for longer than men, they earn lower pay on average and are more likely to experience interrupted careers. Even today, women are often disadvantaged by contributory pension models as they may work fewer hours and earn lower pay.

Additionally, arrangements at home and other caring responsibilities may restrict their opportunities for career progression and ultimately mean they have not worked enough to qualify for full State Pension when they reach retirement age.

In fact, around 1 in 3 women between 55-64 and 1 in 5 aged between 65-74 are unpaid carers. While carers are entitled to certain rights as laid out in the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016, many unpaid carers are unfortunately unaware or unsure of what these are, and how to realise them.

It’s clear much more needs to be done to support older carers, both in terms of finances and for their health and wellbeing. And all too often unpaid carers miss out on what they are entitled to or feel they must fight for their rights.

At the moment, many older people are not claiming the financial support they are entitled to for a variety of reasons – from lack of awareness and stigma to digital exclusion and the belief the money would be better used to help others.

With women also making up the majority of low income pensioners (1 in 5 single female pensioners live in relative poverty), it’s vital that we see continued effort to drive up awareness and uptake of available social security support.

Older women play a vital role in society, including through caring and childcare, volunteering, in the workplace, and in our communities.

We must recognise and celebrate the valuable paid and unpaid contributions they make which hold our society together. Additionally, we must further identify and challenge the persistent inequality that too many older women in Scotland experience.