Gender savings gap opens in the teens
Data from major KiwiSaver providers shows New Zealand women falling behind men in retirement savings from their late teens – and often taking less growth‑oriented investment risk over their working lives.
ANZ Investments’ KiwiSaver data reveals “a clear challenge – women are falling behind on retirement savings before the age of 20.”
“The point at which the gap first appears is striking. It’s minimal until age 18, but it jumps to 10 per cent at age 19 and widens from there,” ANZ managing director Fiona Mackenzie (pictured left) said.
Across Gen Z members in ANZ’s three managed KiwiSaver schemes, the gap is already around 18.75%, with average balances of $13,511 for men compared with $11,378 for women. The average balance for women across those schemes is $33,785, compared with $40,053 for men – “a difference of just over $6,200.”
Fund choice and risk-taking under scrutiny
Both ANZ and Westpac say women are still more likely to opt for conservative or moderate funds, even when they have long investment horizons.
“For me an area that is really interesting is when we look at fund choice, we can see some women tend to make more conservative choices when it comes to investing,” Mackenzie said.
Among Gen Z in the ANZ schemes, 50.3% of women are in growth or high growth funds, compared to 55.2% of men, with an even wider gap for Millennials, ANZ data shows.
Westpac NZ KiwiSaver data similarly shows men “taking on more risk with their fund choice, with men having 37% of their total balances invested in growth and high growth funds, compared to 32% for women, who hold more of their KiwiSaver in moderate or conservative funds.”
Sarah Hearn (pictured right), Westpac NZ general manager of product, sustainability, and marketing, warns that “taking a more defensive KiwiSaver strategy earlier in life could mean missing out on tens of thousands of dollars over several decades.”
International Women’s Day call to action
With the theme for International Women’s Day 2026 being “Give to Gain”, ANZ is urging women to “give” a small amount of time to review their KiwiSaver settings.
“We’re not saying every young woman should be in a growth-oriented fund,” Mackenzie said. “But we do encourage women to take a few minutes to review their settings.”
Hearn echoes the need for engagement.
“Ask them what their KiwiSaver fund returned last year and compare notes. You’ve worked hard for your money, you deserve to have it work hard for you,” she said.
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