Among women who intend to keep working, 85 percent cite financial reasons, but they're also concerned about health issues. (Photo: Shutterstock)

More than half of women plan to keep working in retirement, or not retire at all, and a lot of the motivation is thanks to the financial challenges they face.

According to findings from the 18th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey, only 12 percent of women in the workforce are “very confident” that they will be able to retire to a comfortable lifestyle—and 53 percent say they'll keep working or not retire at all.

Among those who intend to keep working, 85 percent cite financial-related reasons for doing so. But they're also concerned about health issues, with 71 percent also citing healthy-aging reasons (staying active, keeping their brains alert, having a sense of purpose, etc.) as reasons to continue working.

Related: Older women workers face tough economics

Not that they don't dream about what retirement could look like, with 71 percent envisioning a future of travel, 61 percent spending more time with family and friends and 48 percent devoting themselves to hobbies they may not have time for while working. In addition, a substantial 28 percent are looking forward to a retirement filled with volunteer work, while 25 percent still focus on doing some kind of paid work; among the paying opportunities they envision are an encore career (11 percent), starting a business (9 percent) and continuing in their current field (9 percent).

Women are also preoccupied by financial and health fears, with 55 percent afraid they'll outlive their savings and investments, 53 percent fearing that Social Security will be cut or eliminated altogether, 48 percent afraid they won't be able to meet their families' basic financial needs, 47 percent dreading ending up in long-term care and 42 percent fearing lack of access to adequate and affordable healthcare.

And while they are saving for retirement, short-term needs take priority, with 68 percent focused on paying off debt; credit card debt is the bugaboo of 46 percent, while 30 percent are paying on a mortgage, 18 percent student loans, and 16 percent shelling out for other consumer debt.

And while 51 percent say retirement saving is a priority, 58 percent say that building savings—not for retirement—is one of their top-of-list items. Scarily enough, 41 percent say their priority is “just getting by to cover basic living expenses.”

Among the 73 percent of women who are saving for retirement, in an employer plan and/or outside work, the median contribution is 7 percent of their pay—with median household retirement savings a paltry $42,000.

And they don't have emergency savings. The median emergency savings accounts held by women only have $2,000 in them against a car or home repair, loss of a job or a medical emergency. More than a quarter—27 percent—have less than $1,000 in that emergency account, and 26 percent don't know how much they've saved.