We already know that women make less than men and live longer, but now yet another study has surveyed them to learn how they feel about retirement and how financially prepared they are for it. 

And the results are probably pretty much what you might expect: women, the survey found, aren't well prepared financially for retirement and, more troubling, many associate the idea with poverty. 

The results of this study, produced by Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies in association with Aegon, are not surprising because a lot of research has already been done on the subject.

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In this case, however, Transamerica took a global look at the question. There was some variation from country to country, of course, thanks to cultural differences. Women in some regions expect to retire earlier or plan on working longer, while some nationalities are really pessimistic about their prospects after leaving the workplace. 

And while there were lots of pleasant associations connected with the word "retirement," such as "leisure" and "freedom," there were some pretty nasty ones, too, like "insecurity" (15 percent of American women said so, while a whopping 56 percent of Hungarian women chose it) and "poverty" (9 percent of American women, compared with 43 percent of Polish women). 

Only 24 percent of women in the U.S. say they're on track financially to meet their retirement needs, and 43 percent "don't know." While 62 percent of women in the U.S. say they're saving for retirement, only 15 percent say they're saving enough and 22 percent say they're hardly saving anything at all. 

So why aren't they putting money away to take care of themselves in their old age? Globally, women's annual income is 27 percent lower than men's; only 38 percent of women are even offered a retirement plan that includes employer contributions, compared with 45 percent of men. 

And then there are all the reasons they can't participate even if they're offered a plan, including part-time work that disqualifies them or failure to get past the eligibility waiting period. 

In the U.S. alone, 64 percent of women say that a lack of money to invest is the big obstacle to saving. Globally, the response is higher. 

"Traditional gender roles continue to place women at a disadvantage in terms of saving and planning for retirement," Catherine Collinson, president of TCRS, said in a statement. "Juggling work and unpaid caregiving responsibilities often results in a woman's taking time out of the workforce or working part-time. The potential consequences extend far beyond lost income. Doing so can negatively affect her lifetime earnings, savings and compounding of investments, and even employer retirement benefits and Social Security."

To counteract these obstacles, TCRS recommended that employers and policymakers make some changes, including extending workplace retirement plans to cover part-time workers; implementing more automatic features, such as auto enrollment and auto escalation; providing for paid maternity and paternity leave; and allowing women to take leave, paid or unpaid, to become family caregivers.

The survey polled 16,000 individuals (including 7,956 women) in 15 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

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