Breaking the silence on financial stress for Australian women

She manages a lot. Work, family, probably someone else’s schedule before her own. And underneath all of it, a quiet financial worry she hasn’t quite found the time to deal with.

That feeling is real. And it’s far more common than most women let on.

Australian women report higher financial stress than men across every single spending category, according to the National Australia Bank’s Household Financial Stress Index. The gaps are largest in retirement funding, healthcare costs, discretionary spending, and the ability to pull together $2,000 in an emergency. Meanwhile, the proportion of Australians struggling to cope on their income has doubled from 17.1% in November 2020 to 34.6% in January 2024, with women consistently worse off.

A 2025 Liptember Foundation study of over 7,000 Australian women found that financial pressure is one of the leading triggers for depression and anxiety, with 1 in 2 women experiencing mental health issues, and almost 1 in 4 struggling with a severe issue. Financial stress and poor mental health feed each other. Stress makes decisions harder; harder decisions make the stress worse. It’s a cycle that isolation makes worse.

Why your position is harder than it looks on paper

The gender pay gap is real. For every dollar men earn, women average 88.8 cents, which compounds to a significant shortfall across a working lifetime. But that weekly shortfall is only part of the picture.

Every year a woman steps back from full-time work to raise kids, care for a parent, or support someone through illness, her super balance takes a hit that compounds quietly in the background. By their early 60s, Australian women have roughly $51,000 less in superannuation than men at the same age. That gap happened because the superannuation system was built around uninterrupted, full-time careers, and most women’s working lives simply don’t look like that.

The silence doesn’t help

There’s often a layer of shame sitting on top of financial stress. Women often feel a sense that this should have been sorted out by now, and that asking for help means admitting that they’ve failed somewhere. It doesn’t. It means that they are paying attention.

Women want to talk about money, but they’re just not sure it’s safe to do so. And when that conversation doesn’t happen, the stress compounds silently.

The appetite is there. What’s often missing is a clear, practical starting point.

What you can do

Those who finally decide to look clearly at their financial position almost always find that the reality is better than the fear suggested. Not perfect. Sometimes there are gaps that need addressing, but it is manageable. And much less frightening when it’s laid out plainly rather than just felt vaguely in the middle of the night.

The first move isn’t a spreadsheet; it’s permission. Permission to say, “I don’t fully know where I stand, and I’d like to.”

From there, the conversation is straightforward. What do you have right now: your super balance, what it’s invested in, any savings or assets outside super, and what Age Pension you might be entitled to. Then we work out what your life needs to look like in retirement, in today’s dollars, and we do the numbers.

If you’re still in the workforce, there’s also good news on the horizon. From July 2025, superannuation will be paid on government-funded Paid Parental Leave, meaningfully closing the gap for women who take time out to care for children. It’s a genuine step forward.

Unfortunately, legislation moves slowly, and your retirement doesn’t wait for it. The most useful thing you can do right now is understand your own position, clearly and without judgement.

If financial worry has become background noise you’ve learned to live with, it doesn’t have to stay that way. That’s exactly the kind of conversation we’re here for.