How Emergency Savings Accounts Can Help Women

A higher proportion of women (64%) than men (60%) say they value having retirement plans, but women have competing paycheck priorities that drive most of them to not save enough for the long term, according to new research from The Standard.

Among respondents to The Standard’s survey, women (25%) were more likely than men (22%) to say saving for unexpected expenses and emergencies was one of their top three financial goals for the next year. Women were also more likely than men to prioritize other short-term expenses, such as paying down debt and “making ends meet,” by margins of seven percentage points and two percentage points, respectively.

“Unlike men, women encounter a tension between planning for the future and covering day-to-day living costs,” The Standard’s report stated. “Women’s interest in benefits that offer more flexibility shows they’re thinking about how to protect their finances. Having this need better met might allow them to put more emphasis on saving for post-work life.”

Men were seven percentage points more likely (32%) than women (25%) to place saving for retirement in their top three financial goals for the next year, per The Standard. Meanwhile, new research from BlackRock found U.S. voters struggle to save for both retirement and emergencies. More than one-third (34%) of U.S. voters surveyed said they would have difficulty immediately paying an unexpected bill for $500, and 30% of U.S. registered voters said they had no retirement savings.

While women may prioritize short-term financial security more than men, there remains tension between the savings vehicles women want and those they have. The Standard found that while 56% of women sought access to an emergency savings account, only 8% had one available to them at the time the survey was conducted. Recent research from AARP found roughly 60% of workers said they were likely to enroll in an emergency savings program if offered by their employer, citing among their reasons: increased savings, convenience of the accounts and a sense that participation was a “good” thing to do.

According to The Standard, medical debt is a “probable driver” of women’s concern about near-term expenses. Women were more likely (9%) than men (7%) to report having medical debt, some of which is likely related to childbirth expenses and lower average income among women than men. In addition, new mothers were twice as likely to have medical debt as young women who did not recently have children.

Melissa Oliver-Janiak, vice president of total rewards and human resource mergers-and-acquisition strategy at The Standard, says employers can offer voluntary benefits—such as emergency savings accounts—as one way to help women feel they have the resources to save for the things they value.

Aside from offering the accounts as benefits, Oliver-Janiak says employers should also provide education to their workers about what solutions are available to them.

“Making sure people understand their retirement plan, designing the plan in a way that is favorable to the employees’ ability to save for the long-term, and then considering some of these other insurance benefits that can help with short-term savings [for] emergencies or short-term needs are probably all great tools to address the issue,” Oliver-Janiak says. She also suggests employers survey their employees to find out what benefits their workforce values most.

Lee McAdoo, Charles Schwab’s managing director for retirement plan services, says it can be important for employers to understand how engaged women are in saving for the long run, too—not just the short term. Schwab fielded a survey last year that found 80% of women who identify as either the primary or joint financial decisionmakers in their households prioritize long-term financial goals, with retiring on time their No. 1 investment priority.

“Women are particularly good at understanding the [short-term] needs of their families and thinking through long-term issues [such as] college savings and retirement,” says McAdoo. Employers should “understand the needs of women, the way they like to consume [benefits] information, and how sophisticated and engaged they are.”

The Standard’s survey was conducted among 5,000 adults ages 18 through 70, most of whom received a form of employee benefits, from March 10 through March 27, 2025.

AARP’s survey was fielded among 5,487 workers ages 25 through 64 who were paid by direct deposit and expected to remain with their employer for at least one more year from December 9, 2024, through January 21, 2025.

BlackRock fielded responses from 1,000 registered U.S. voters between January 21 and January 26.