As a result, with many women already exhibiting "bag lady syndrome" and envisioning a future without enough money to pay for decent food, lodging and medical care, it's no wonder that thoughts of cat food, rather than sugarplums, may be dancing through their heads in the wee hours of the morning—probably to something suitably spooky and nightmarish, such as "Night on Bald Mountain."

But women can ward off at least some of these specters of a long, slow descent into darkness and poverty—hence this slideshow, which can at least warn readers of the hazards these handicaps present.

Knowing what could threaten a comfortable retirement could provide a glimpse of ways to prevent those threats.

We rounded up 10 of the scariest issues that haunt women's financial futures, and present them here for your delectation (and, we hope, avoidance). After all, forewarned is forearmed.

Get those stakes ready (no, not the kind you put on the grill); garlic won't help you with these challenges.

Women are 27 percent more likely than men to have saved nothing for retirement. (Photo: AP)

10. Retirement savings of zero.

Yes, that's right—zero.

According to a GoBankingRates.com survey, a third of Americans have saved nothing at all for retirement. If you think that's bad, consider this: women are 27 percent more likely than men to have saved nothing. Now that's scary.

And an Aon Hewitt study found that five out of six women aren't saving enough for retirement.

Age doesn't necessarily bring wisdom when it comes to retirement savings, either.

While 72 percent of millennials have saved less than $10,000—or nothing at all—toward their retirement years, among workers over 40 years old, 75 percent are behind on retirement savings.

Overall, the National Institute on Retirement Security puts the shortfall in retirement savings among all workers at between $6.8 and $14 trillion. That's trillion, with a t.

9. Heath care costs could bankrupt women.

We all know that health care costs are on the rise, and Fidelity data indicate that a couple who retired in 2015 at 65 years of age can expect to spend in the neighborhood of $245,000 just on that one category throughout their retirement.

With women's savings levels already so low, that doesn't bode well for the sex that can expect to spend even more on health care than men—particularly since they live longer and are thus likely to live on into ill health.

A HealthView Services report projected that a 30-year-old woman retiring at age 65 can expect to pay $548,098 in today's dollars in total lifetime retirement health care expenses; that's $118,632 more than a male of the same age, based on life expectancies of 91 and 87, respectively.

But wait—it gets worse. Ron Mastrogiovanni, founder and CEO of HealthView Services, said in the report that some people could eventually see their medical expenses actually exceed their Social Security benefits.

Since most women already get lower Social Security benefits than men, that could be the kiss of death.

8. Women might spend more years disabled.

Women on average have longer lifespans than men—exactly how long depends on whose projection you use—but that doesn't mean they can look forward to a long and carefree retirement.

If the bad news about health care costs we already mentioned isn't gloomy enough for you, there's another troubling statistic: women are more likely to spend more time disabled as they age.

Studies conducted on Medicare beneficiaries over the past 34 years found that the average 65-year-old woman can expect to spend 30 percent of her remaining life with a disability that impairs her ability to live a fully active life.

Men, on the other hand, live shorter lives, but only spend 19 percent of their Medicare years disabled.

To add insult to injury, the study showed that male health and longevity has increased far more dramatically over the past three decades than female health and longevity.

Only 62 percent of women are even offered retirement plans through an employer. (Photo: AP)

7. Longer lifespans mean money has to last longer—and so do jobs.

Aon Hewitt projects that women will need 11.5 times their final pay to meet their needs in retirement, while men only need to replace 10.6 times their pay.

However, the study says that there's a gap of 3.3 times pay between what women need and what they're actually on track to have saved in order to retire at age 65. For men, the difference between needs and resources is just 2.0 times pay.

So women will have to work till age 69 to meet 100 percent of their needs in retirement—a whole year longer than men will.

6. That long life span might not come with a job.

Even if they need to work in retirement, women might not be able to.

Not only is it harder for older workers to find work—particularly well-paying work with full benefits—ill health or family obligations, such as caretaking, might get in the way.

Women are more likely to be the designated caregiver if a family member falls ill or is incapacitated, and since they already face tough odds of being incapacitated themselves, they might not be able to augment Social Security income or other savings with a paycheck.

Even if they have jobs, caregivers are often forced to make tough choices that have a negative impact on their employment—including leaving the job altogether.

And that makes it tough not only to save, but even to retain retirement assets that often get spent on the person receiving care. So there might not be much, if anything, left to live on by the time caregiving ends.

5. Women don't get offered retirement plans.

Only 62 percent of women are even offered the opportunity to save for retirement—thanks to lower-paying jobs and less time in the workplace.

And if they're Hispanic or black, the problem is compounded. According to a white paper from the Financial Services Roundtable, although "[w]omen comprise 47 percent of the labor force in America, and women over 25 are nearly as likely to have earned a bachelor's degree as men—29.6 percent of women compared to 30.4 percent of men"—that doesn't mean they're getting an equal opportunity when it comes to saving for retirement.

Twenty-seven percent of women work only part time, and many leave the workplace to raise children or care for other family members.

That limits their opportunities for earning and advancement—even if they do work for a company that offers a retirement plan.

In addition, 65 percent of employed Hispanic women and 59 percent of employed black women work in low-wage jobs including service, sales, and office occupations—and thus are less likely to have the opportunity to participate in a retirement plan.

Floating alone in retirement or being floated a student loan — women's money for retirement savings is stretched thin. (Photo: AP)

4. Student loans could eat up retirement savings.

More women are pursuing degrees these days than men, but along with those sheepskins come loads and loads of student debt. And the efforts of people to pay off that debt are eating into their retirement savings in a big way.

But it's not just money; not only is student loan debt taking a toll on workers' psyches—51 percent say "debt is ruining their quality of life," compared to just 28 percent of those without loans—those loans are dragging down retirement savings.

Workers with student loans are participating in employer-provided retirement plans at a lower rate than those without loans (71 percent compared to 77 percent). And if that's not bad enough, 51 percent of workers with student loans are contributing no more than 5 percent of pay to their plan.

An Aon Hewitt study found that the problem isn't just among the young; 28 percent of respondents overall currently have an outstanding student loan. Numbers are higher among younger workers, as might be expected, with nearly half of millennials (44 percent) reporting student debt.

But 26 percent of GenXers and 13 percent of boomers have student loans, too, and roughly half are paying at least $3,000 per year.

3. Being alone during retirement could cost big-time.

Women who were in more traditional relationships, in which they either stayed home or only worked part time, could find themselves in particular jeopardy if they become widowed or divorced and are ignorant of their own basic financial situation—such as how much, or even whether, their spouses had retirement savings or pensions, and whether their spouse made any provision for them in the event of death.

A pension that ends with the death of the worker and not the surviving spouse could mean a bleak future.

But that doesn't mean being alone in retirement is a walk in the park for single women, either; many have struggled all their lives as single mothers and probably haven't saved much for retirement anyway.

Women might consider the spector of a retirement with less than adequate savings. (Photo: AP)

2. Divorce could end retirement dreams.

Women who end up divorced late in life can not only lose out because of ignorance of a spouse's financial arrangements, but also because they have to go back to work.

According to a study by economists Claudia Olivetti of Boston College and Dana Rotz of Mathematica Policy Research, the later a woman divorces, the more likely she is to be working full time late in life.

Later breakups have an outsized impact on individual finances, often forcing people to delay retirement—and the study's findings also suggest that this increased monetary stress plays an outsize role in pushing older women back into the workforce.

And older women are deeper in debt and more "financially fragile" today than older women were in the past, according to a paper by Annamaria Lusardi of George Washington University and Olivia Mitchell of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

1. It will take 170 years to close the economic gender gap.

Yes, you read that correctly: 170 years.

Although gains were made by women globally both economically and in opportunity over the past several years, last year was not a good year for women. According to the World Economic Forum's 2016 Global Gender Gap report, women will not reach economic equality with men until 2186—thanks to ground lost over the last year.

In fact, the economic gap between men and women is now the largest it's been since 2008.

Part of that is due to women's lesser participation in the labor market, globally, than men, with 54 percent of working-age women heading off to a job, compared with 81 percent of men.

And salaries globally are doing equally poorly—with some countries far outshining others in approaching parity. Incidentally, the U.S. is not among them; it didn't even make the top 10, coming in at a dismal 45 out of 144 countries and 26 in economic participation and opportunity.

Women's salaries on a global basis, at $10,778, only amount to a little more than half of men's, at $19,873. So retirement saving is likely to remain a challenge for a long, long time.