On March 3, Triple-I launched its Chart of the Week, “Girls’s Illustration Amongst Underwriters Elevated.” Citing knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the chart reveals that the variety of girls insurance coverage Underwriters elevated by 5 p.c from 56.9 p.c to 61.9 p.c in 2024.
The insurance coverage sector supplied about 3.0 million jobs–or 1.9 p.c of U.S. employment (staff 16 years and over) in 2024. Knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics signifies that 1.7 million staff have been girls. Since 2012, girls have comprised about the identical total proportion (about 59 p.c) of the business workforce every year. Nonetheless, the newest COTW reveals that illustration continues to fluctuate throughout occupations. From 2023 to 2024, girls’s illustration amongst Insurance coverage Clerks decreased 1.4 p.c, from 80.1 p.c to 78.7 p.c. Illustration amongst Insurance coverage Gross sales Brokers decreased 3.8 p.c, from 54.9 p.c to 51.1 p.c.
The typical illustration of ladies throughout the U.S. workforce is 47 p.c based mostly on knowledge from households within the Present Inhabitants Survey (CPS), an annual survey of enterprise institutions in personal business performed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Life insurance coverage, annuities, and residential and auto insurance coverage sectors are significantly extra gender numerous than the common business in North America, particularly in entry-level jobs, the place girls make up two-thirds of the 70% of entry-level staff. In distinction to the abundance of illustration on the backside, the view throughout the highest ranks seems notably completely different. Solely about 22 p.c (lower than 1 in 4) of staff within the C-Suite are girls, and solely two girls CEOs head up Fortune 500 insurance coverage corporations: Thasunda Brown Duckett, President and Chief Government Officer of TIAA, and Tricia Griffith, President and Chief Government Officer of the Progressive Group of Insurance coverage Firms.
Nonetheless, girls proceed to exhibit their expertise, willingness to develop, and skill to affect the insurance coverage business in a constructive and forward-thinking manner. In response to McKinsey, for each 100 males promoted to managerial positions, 104 girls are promoted — a lot increased than the 87 girls promoted throughout all industries. On the board stage, girls maintain 40 p.c of the seats within the aforementioned business sectors.
Nonetheless, from entry-level to managerial stage, the ladies within the business are predominantly white, with the management pipeline remaining much more closed off to girls of coloration. Just one in 20 senior vice presidents and one in 35 direct reviews to CEOs in insurance coverage are girls of coloration. Black girls comprise greater than 7 p.c of the entry-level insurance coverage workforce, however this quantity plummets alongside the company ladder and falls to just about zero on the C-suite.
There’s proof that girls as staff within the insurance coverage business return a great distance, as far again as 1797. Their large affect on the business as customers possible pivoted in 1839 with particular person American states passing the Married Girls’s Property Act, permitting life insurance coverage proceeds to be handed to a widow with out being topic to the calls for of the husband’s debtors. By 1942, girls accounted for 30% of whole life insurance coverage gross sales, and simply two years later, girls have been shopping for 83% extra life insurance coverage than they did in 1942.
Right now, protecting threat administration options simply accessible and tailor-made to the market’s wants is arguably the largest core problem dealing with insurers. Analysis signifies that feminine CEOs amongst U.S. property-casualty insurance coverage corporations are related to “decrease insurer insolvency propensity, increased z-score, and decrease customary deviation of return on property.” Moreover, knowledge steered that as customers, girls are likely to spend comparatively extra of their earnings on insurance coverage and have completely different shopper behavioral preferences which will compel a rethinking of insurance coverage worth chains.
Thus, insurers might uncover that fostering an inclusive tradition that welcomes extra girls into management could be a sooner path to profitable outcomes. Be part of us on the upcoming JIF 2025 occasion and comply with our weblog for extra insights on the way forward for insurance coverage.
