This year marks 115 years of International Women’s Day, but how have women’s pensions changed in that time? Susan Hope, business development director at Scottish Widows, takes us through in today’s Notebook

A short history of women’s pensions

#As someone who has a mother navigating her own complex retirement journey and a daughter about to face her own £100,000 gender pension gap, closing that gap is personal! I’m also right in the middle of my own retirement journey with two divorces under my belt, a career break and periods of part-time work to boot – so am a classic example of all the contributing factors to the massive six figure gap women are often faced with.

It’s been 115 years since International Women’s Day launched and the landscape for women’s retirement finances has changed drastically over the last century. The origins of income provision in retirement can be traced back to the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908. This was available to women and men over 70 years old, though there were significant limitations, not least that the payments were below the standard poverty........

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