International Women’s Day: A Reflection on Gender and Divorce
On Thursday 6 March, the University Women’s Club hosted a talk on Gender Pay Equity and Financial Empowerment for Women Lawyers.
Rosie Schumm, Partner in the Family Team at Forsters, spoke about how women are often impacted by divorce more so than men. Legal and General conducted a study in 2024 which showed that women are more likely to face financial struggle post-divorce (24% vs 18%) with their annual household income taking a serious financial hit in the first year, falling by an estimated 41% compared to just 21% for men.
Historically, women have taken on a disproportionate amount of family responsibility over the course of their marriage often to enable their husband’s to further their careers. Despite changing attitudes and an increase in women’s financial independence, it was recorded in 2024 that men are still likely to be the main breadwinner in families (70% vs 21% of women), and earn more. This gap in earning potential, coupled with the average age women divorce, typically in their mid-40s, can place women at a significant disadvantage when negotiating a financial settlement and in their ability to build a career post-divorce.
In cases where (often) the wife has given up work to be the homemaker/stay at home parent, it is common for spousal maintenance to be awarded. This has typically been provided on a “joint lives basis”, meaning that (often) the husband has an obligation to pay maintenance until either the recipient remarries, the payer or payee dies or the court makes a further order. However, since the case of Waggott v Waggott [2018] EWCA Civ 727 in which the court rejected the wife’s appeal to increase her annual maintenance payment from her husband, there has been a shift in the court’s focus away from awarding spousal maintenance towards achieving a clean break.
The Law Commission published a recent scoping report that reviews the law derived over 50 years ago concerning financial remedies on divorce. One area being considered is whether there should be a cap on the term of spousal maintenance payments. Baroness Deech is a prominent advocate for reform and proposes a limited term of spousal maintenance of 5 years. For her, a maximum term would provide more certainty than the law at present, which allows a judge to decide the level and term of maintenance at their discretion, and would foster greater financial independence for, and empower, women. However, there are concerns that a limited term could impact those in need for long-term maintenance by fettering the court’s discretion.
The gender pensions gap must also be considered. It is typical for pension accrual to be lower for women than men (on average £23,000 for women vs £60,000 for men) as women are more likely to be out of work. For those in work the gender pay gap coupled with increased part-time work to cater for caring responsibilities and lower pay on maternity, narrows their ability to make pension contributions. Perhaps more concerning, is that women on divorce are more likely to waive their rights to their husband’s pension (30% of women vs 17%) leaving women without the resources to fund their retirement. It is imperative anyone divorcing understands the importance of pensions as a financial asset on divorce and considers legal and financial advice.
Forsters’ Family team support female clients both homemakers and high earners to achieve a fair outcome on divorce. As a firm more widely, we are proud of our gender pay gap statistics:
- 53% of partners at Forsters are female;
- 64% of associates are female. Women made up 61% of employees in the highest paid quarter;
- Our Managing Partner, Emily Exton, and Senior Partner, Natasha Rees are both women;
- Two out of four of our Family Partners are women (Head of Family at Forsters, Jo Edwards, and Partner, Rosie Schumm); and
- 5 out of 8 operational management heads are female.
