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Blazing a trail forward
“The industry is holding on to the good old days and the Mad Man era. It’s hard to change the mindset of the senior colleagues and be seen as a valuable contributor,” says one of Reinsurance Business’ Elite Women of 2024. This is an apt description of the industry landscape.
Anna Ziswiler, market head for Switzerland & Mediterranean, P&C Re, at Swiss Re, echoes this.
“The reality is that women are a minority at the top of the reinsurance and insurance sectors. In addition, when I look around, I still see many more male colleagues have P&L responsibilities, and more women are in advisory roles.
However, for those leading and exceptional performers, such as REIB‘s Elite Women who have battled against the odds, Ziswiler shares what they embody.
“I expect to see a leading woman in reinsurance delivering high impact, putting her organisation, customers and teams first, and bringing leadership that is inclusive, to listen, care, empower, connect individuals and teams to collaborate and solve problems.”
Kweilin Ellingrud, McKinsey Global Institute director and senior partner, shared in 2023 that women made up over half of entry-level employees in the North American insurance industry but 40 percent at the board level.
Adding more nuance for every 100 men promoted to manager, 104 women are promoted. Ellingrud refers to this as “the broken rung of initial promotions” being eliminated.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024 reveals that the financial services industry is among the worst at enabling women to rise to the top. Their data shows that women make up 48 percent of entry level positions, but this drops to 21.1 percent at the C-suite, equalling a “drop to the top” figure of 44 percent. This compares poorly to consumer services (62 percent), government/public sector (59 percent), and education (59 percent).
The improvements are happening, but barriers remain for women to achieve parity and be offered the same opportunities