In a survey, 92 percent stated that they had a “significant concern” over this issue.
The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) has recently released the results of its survey that has shown that 92 percent of the women who took part felt that gender inequality is worrisome within this industry.
More than nine out of every ten women feel “significant concern for the insurance industry today”.
The majority of respondents also indicated that they felt that their own respective insurance companies are “actively promoting gender diversity,” said the IICF. This suggests that while gender equality remains an issue of concern among women in this environment, they do recognize that efforts are being made to improve this situation.
The gender equality survey included the participation of 800 female insurance industry members.
When asked about the degree to which the respondents were in agreement or disagreement with the statement that equality between the genders is a “significant concern” in today’s insurance industry, the breakdown was that 52 percent “agreed” with the statement while another 37 percent “strongly agreed”. A notably smaller 10 percent disagreed with the statement, while a sliver of the whole, 1 percent, strongly disagreed.
This survey was conducted in four major U.S. cities in June at the Women in Insurance Conference series. The respondents were then asked about the degree to which their own companies were “actively promoting gender diversity”. There, only 6 percent were strongly disagreed, while 26 percent disagreed. On the other hand, 44 percent said that they agreed and 24 percent felt that they strongly agreed with the statement about the insurer that employed them.
Respondents were later asked about the sector of financial services that they considered to be the “the most supportive the advancement of women to senior leadership roles.” The choices that were offered were investment services, accounting, banking, and insurance. Nearly one quarter (23 percent) selected insurance, while only 6 percent chose investment services, 29 said that banking was the most supportive, but the largest number of respondents, 42 percent, chose accounting.
When they were asked about the largest barriers in gender equality, stopping women from seeking leadership positions within their companies, the highest number of respondents (38 percent), chose “biases in advancement/hiring structure”.
