Gender exclusivity: Will the insurance industry be left behind?
Women comprise more than 60% of the insurance industry, and yet, they only hold 19% of board seats.
The insurance industry is filled with antiquated practices, from underwriting processes to claim management. It’s no surprise that many of these outdated habits cause gender exclusivity, pushing the industry even further into the past in a world barreling toward the future.
For example, golfing is still the traditional route to relationship-building in the risk management space, and the faces of leadership at some carriers remain primarily male and white. What’s more, legacy carriers and startups have struggled to keep up with the times.
However, technology-driven innovations in the space have spurred a transformation, even producing a buzzword: insurtech. Yet, the change runs deeper than merely a digital morph. With newness springing up globally and “old school” traditions becoming a thing of the past, we only hope the insurance industry can change fast enough.
A closer look at traditional insurance relationships
Supporting any revolutionary change requires an understanding of this industry from the inside out, including all its deeply-rooted traditions. For starters, building relationships for many insurance professionals has always meant getting out on the green or throwing back a few cold ones.
But these practices exclude a significant chunk of vital professionals, namely females. Let’s take a deeper look at these relationship-building habits and their impact.
Golfing and business
Most of society has considered golf a “rich man’s sport” for many years, and many of us have accepted it. After all, excelling at the game requires fine-tuned technique and experience, feats typically accomplished with age and money. However, it’s long been touted as an activity of well-connected gentlemen, one in which few women gain entry.
According to the National Golf Foundation (NGF), roughly 23% of on-course golfers are women, and a disproportionately high percentage are beginners. But consider that most young girls don’t have access to the sport and don’t generally incorporate it into their networking endeavors later in life.
Still, golf remains a significant part of the insurance world, providing a prime time for schmoozing, per se. Yet, this activity is benching essential female players. And this isn’t because women can’t champion the sport; we see you Korda sisters!
There is hope. Although golf is primarily male-dominated, the 23% mentioned earlier means women are increasingly interested in the game. Undoubtedly, the uptick is because of efforts from supportive groups such as Girls Golf Rocks and Women on Par.
Understanding gender exclusive activities
Please understand that golf is only one small example of relationship-building activities that can become gender-exclusive quickly. Some people think that the sport must find ways to attract more women. Others believe that the insurance industry should scrap the game and find another activity altogether.
If we discard golf, don’t we need to toss other activities blurring the line between gender exclusivity and inclusivity?
Most professionals understand that relationship-building must happen outside of the office or boardroom. Consider that many brilliant ideas have been scribbled on cocktail-soaked napkins. Or that high-dollar deals have been sealed in unconventional places, like near a sailboat’s bow or in a football stadium.
Our approach to inclusivity might be the real crux. So perhaps the goal should be to find a happy medium between convention and nonconformity instead of subscribing to an all-or-nothing thinking pattern. Golf, or any other activity, might not honestly be the problem.
How access and background impact the work environment
As we dig deeper into gender inclusivism, we must highlight how someone’s history might impact their core habits. Again, consider golf as an example that getting on the green might seem uncomfortable to individuals who’ve never played golf before. Sure, it’s second nature after swinging the club a few hundred times.
However, for people who didn’t grow up with access to golf, this experience could be a nightmare. At a moment when you only want to impress, you accidentally toss a $200 driver into the lake. This scenario can feel uncomfortable for both males and females.
Remember, golf is merely one activity, an easy sacrificial lamb for this article, with an unfortunate but commonly known acronym of “gentlemen only, ladies forbidden.” The take-home message isn’t that golf is bad. Instead, the insurance industry must acknowledge its traditions, and the typical way of building relationships won’t cut it any longer.
Being more gender inclusive
Albert Einstein once said, “the only mistake in life is the lesson not learned,” and the insurance industry must take this to heart, or it could be left behind. Remember, insurance isn’t a product anyone wants to need. Negativity often surrounds the mere idea of risk management, forcing people to think of worst-case scenarios and such.
Although insurance might be considered an unattractive space, we must acknowledge that it’s still a people business. Human relationships pulsate life into the industry — and always have. However, as mentioned earlier, new insurtech faces aren’t going to be the industry’s saving grace. It’ll take more than digital transformation to attract top talent and keep the gears turning, especially in today’s employment-related legal landscape.
We must push this industry’s fundamentals to be more inclusive, or we’ll be eating Einstein’s words.
Supporting education and awareness
When I became a founder member of Founder Shield’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, the Customer Success Team was 15% people of color and 15% female. After loads of purposeful work as Managing Director, the team is now 40% people of color, and 50% of the team members identify as female.
Tiny steps in the right direction eventually got us to hit peak performance goals, such as 20-30% YoY revenue increases and +90% retention. Unsurprisingly, education played a significant role in our success, and we can apply this lesson industry-wide.
Insurance professionals must learn to be aware and sensitive to various situations, respecting people’s backgrounds and history. We must give individuals the tools they need to be properly included, whether that means adjusting our language models to use pronouns more meaningfully or shifting our relationship-building pursuits to more gender-inclusive activities.
Women comprise more than 60% of the insurance industry, and yet, they only hold 19% of board seats. Is this because the men went golfing without the women? Sure, it’s one potential explanation. A more plausible explanation that women are underrepresented among executives is that the insurance industry hasn’t quite gotten the hang of gender inclusivity. Long-held traditions overpower positive shifts too often — but we’re all posed for that to change, too.
Rachel Jenkins is executive vice presentation and Customer Success Manager at Founder Shield. These opinions are the author’s own.
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