Photo illustration by Jeffrey C. Chase
March 26, 2026
For many women, the path to building wealth isn’t just about earning more. It requires navigating a system where pay gaps, career interruptions and social dynamics quietly compound over time.
The truth is, women continue to face a significant disadvantage in the workforce, characterized by a persistent gender pay gap, lower promotion rates and underrepresentation in leadership. These gaps — combined with longer life expectancies (i.e., needing more retirement funds), time out of the workforce for caregiving and higher costs associated with being a woman — affect women’s ability to earn, save, invest and build wealth.
Even at the highest levels of leadership, progress has been uneven. In 2015 women made up just under 5% of Fortune 500 chief executives, while roughly 10% were men named James, John and Jon. Nearly a decade later, both groups had grown to 41 people. Progress is progress, right?
“It’s such a multi-faceted challenge,” said Amanda Bullough, professor of management and global leadership at the University of Delaware. “There are so many reasons why these gaps exist, and so you can’t easily point to any one thing.”
Transparency and the power of negotiation
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women earn 82% as much as men in the U.S. — and the gap widens at higher income levels.
Still, research suggests one lever for change that is surprisingly straightforward: transparency.
Transparency can significantly reduce, or even eliminate, the pay gap, said Dustin Sleesman, associate professor of management in UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, whose research focuses on how gender influences negotiation. Transparency can be either formal, including public salary data or ranges listed in job ads, or informal, such as information from colleagues or websites like glassdoor.com.
“The more you can reduce ambiguity, the more the pay gap disappears in terms of negotiations,” Sleesman said. “It’s a powerful tool.”
According to Sleesman’s research, men tend to seek social comparisons when looking for salary information, often aiming for salaries that match or exceed those of more qualified peers. Women, on the other hand, prefer neutral sources like websites.
This difference is key, Sleesman said, because while transparency is important, if the information triggers a sense of competitiveness among men, the gender pay gap persists.
That’s where negotiation training can help mitigate the gap, said Sleesman, who teaches a negotiation class at UD.
“It’s all about self-advocacy and understanding the process of negotiation — the context and appropriateness,” he said. “Once again that goes to reducing ambiguity. It’s okay to negotiate — employers oftentimes expect you to, and it can actually look bad if you don’t in some cases.”
In other words, while structural inequities remain, negotiation strategies can play an important role in reducing the gap.
The compounding cost of career gaps
Beyond salary, career interruptions can have long-term financial consequences.
Women are more likely to take time off to care for a young child or aging parent, and they also shoulder more day-to-day caregiving responsibilities. Bullough said these realities can lead to a perception that women are less committed to work, particularly when seeking promotions or raises.
“All of those things cause more gaps in work — in daily work and in career work — that then compounds into a financial disadvantage,” Bullough said.
While a $5,000 difference in salary or a few years out of the workforce might not seem like much, the long-term outcome is significant, said Emily Woodson, a certified financial planner at Financial House, who earned her certificate in financial planning from UD.
“Even a modest pay gap or taking a few years off to care for children could translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement savings difference,” said Woodson, who specializes in helping women navigate the complexities of their changing financial life after major life transitions like divorce or a career switch.
Planning for longer lives and larger needs
Layered onto these challenges is another reality: Women tend to live longer.
Paying yourself first, taking advantage of employee benefits and investing early and often are key strategies to combat the retirement savings gap, Woodson said.
Bullough echoed that urgency.
“You can’t afford to start late if you’re going to live longer. The sooner you can start saving and investing, the better,” said Bullough, adding that women should consider how much employers contribute to their retirement account.
She also emphasized that time is a critical resource.
“If you’re going to live longer and have to save more, you have to save more — and earlier — than men do, mathematically speaking,” she said. “In order to do that, you need to be super strategic and smart with where you put your time and energy.”
Rethinking risk and opportunity
While women tend to be good savers, experts say investing behavior also plays an important role in financial security and success.
Maria Magowan, a junior finance and financial planning double major and president of the Women in Finance registered student organization, encourages her peers to embrace calculated risk.
“It’s okay to take on some risk,” she said. “When you’re young, it’s important to make risky investments. You have time to recover if they go a little south.”
That mindset shift, she added, starts with education and awareness.
Magowan knows she’s entering a male-dominated profession, but through the Women in Finance RSO, she’s had the opportunity to network with peers and professionals alike. While they’re still outnumbered in the field, especially at leadership levels, the growing presence of women is reshaping the finance industry in meaningful ways.
“Money is kind of a sensitive topic for some people,” Magowan said. “When you want someone to plan out and take care of your finances, you want someone who’s warm, welcoming and trustworthy. Women really do fill that need in the industry.”