Three in five (60%) women have failed to do any pension planning outside workplace auto-enrolment, according to a new report published to coincide with International Women's Day today.

This compares to 46% of men, according to the survey over 2,000 UK adults by My Pension Expert.

The survey also found that 15% of employed UK women do not know whether they have a workplace pension or how much they contribute to it.

Women with a workplace pension were less likely to be keeping track of investment performance, with only 44% of women knowing how their pension is performing compared to 60% of men.

Lily Megson, policy director at My Pension Expert, said the research suggested that the gender pensions gap is slowly narrowing but called for the Government and employers to put more financial education initiatives in place.

She said: “It’s clear that more needs to be done to get women engaging with their pension planning both in and out of the workplace – this is where the government and employers must step in.

"It is critical that robust financial education and pension monitoring tools are made widely available for the UK workforce, and more importantly, that proper encouragement and support is given to engage with them. Only then will women be able to be truly financially empowered and fully engaged with their pension.”

Wealth and investment manager Close Bothers also recently called for more employers to help their staff with financial education and wellbeing.

The Close Brothers research showed a clear advice gap with 43% of employees saying they would value pensions advice and 36% stating they would like financial advice even though few companies offered it.

• Opinium surveyed 2,000 UK adults online on behalf of My Pension Expert between 26 and 31 January.