Like everything else in the insurance industry, the faces of those in leadership are also changing as more women move into managerial and C-suite positions. But that hasn't always been the case. A 2012 report by SourceMedia Research and Insurance Networking News found that women comprised 59.4% of the insurance workforce, but only one woman was the CEO of either a Fortune 500 or 1000 insurance company.

Growing number of women in insurance

Over the last five years, the number of women in the insurance industry has increased to 1.7 million according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The percentage of female workers involved in insurance occupations in 2016 included: 47% working as sales agents; 62% as underwriters; 62% as adjusters, appraisers, examiners and investigators; and 85% working as claims and policy processing clerks.

At the May conference for Insurance Accounting and Systems Association, Inc. (IASA) in Orlando, Florida, a panel comprising several former women presidents of the organization discussed the challenges they faced as they moved into leadership positions both within their companies and the organization, as well as their successes, and what distinguished them from their male counterparts.

Cathy Ellwood of Ellwood Enterprises, who served as IASA president in 2005 and spent 30 years at Nationwide Insurance, explained that she and other women in the company did "everything we saw successful men doing," but their actions were not always well received by the men. Ellwood said she made herself indispensable in every job and became a subject matter expert. "If I couldn't be them, I would outperform them," she shared.

Lack of mentors

Part of the challenge was the lack of women mentors, said Ruth Estrich, who retired from MedRisk after 40 years in the industry. Estrich, who was the IASA president in 2011, recounted how she had to constantly strive to work harder and be smarter than her male counterparts. This changed significantly when she worked under a female CEO because she didn't have to continuously prove her value to be accepted as part of the team.