Insurance industry lacks gender diversity across leadership roles: study

The insurance industry lacks gender diversity across all levels of leadership, despite having a high number of women employed in the field, suggests a new study out of the United States.

For the study, primary author Mike Angelina, executive director of Saint Joseph’s Academy of Risk Management and Insurance, analyzed the publicly available information of 91 publicly traded companies and nine mutual companies. The companies included insurers, reinsurers and brokers.

While there are many women in the insurance industry, the research found that only 12.6% hold board of director positions. Only 8% are named inside officers and only 6% hold top “C-suite” positions, according to the study.

Those findings are consistent with a national trend in the U.S, according to Angelina. Among Fortune 500 companies, only 4% of the CEO positions are held by women, notes a release on the study from Saint Joseph’s University, which is based in Philadelphia.

“There was a general awareness of the lack of gender diversity but most executives felt strides had been made in this area,” Angelina noted.  “This research will hopefully give the industry the data they need to work toward a sustainable solution, in which many executives are very interested in taking part.”

Customer or consumer-facing types of organizations had more gender diversity, according to the research.