The good news is that the leaders we talked to for this study represent some of the more progressive European insurance companies when it comes to DE&I and collectively shared ideas and best practice examples from their own repertoires.

For gender balance, that means addressing the challenges and barriers that may prevent women from maximizing their potential. To attract, retain, and make the best of all talent in an organization, insurance companies must build inclusive cultures that make all employees feel that they belong and are being heard. Overall, we found that while many companies are pouring resources into initiatives meant to support women’s career progression, not enough of them address another critical driver: culture.

We analyzed the gender balance at the top 30 European insurance companies and spoke to eight leaders about their approaches to shifting their organizations’ established systems and mindsets. So we went on a fact-finding mission to explore what the current landscape of gender balance in the European insurance industry looks like and to understand what some of the sector leaders do to make progress on this issue. “And it’s extremely important to go on a fact-finding mission to understand how your organization fares across geographies and divisions.” “I think gender balance is an important business driver, not just a feel-good initiative you have to do,” said Paolo De Martin, former CEO of SCOR Global Life. One of the main reasons for this lack of progress may be the way companies are framing gender balance in their organization the more successful organizations are the ones that frame it as a business issue, not a women’s issue. But still, many organizations feel that not enough progress has been made.

Many organizations are taking important steps to address the gap: gender balance issues and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) overall have become strategic considerations for leadership teams and boards gender balance has been factored into succession planning there are clear targets and metrics in place to measure success and there is a vast array of policies such as equal pay, work flexibility, and parental leave that are being revised to remove gender inequities from working conditions. The implication is that the efforts the sector has made in addressing the gender imbalance so far might not be sufficient in the long run. And for many organizations, there is a deeper concern that the pipeline of female leaders may be exhausted, with few women available for promotion between the middle management and executive levels. While many companies in the European insurance industry have improved their gender balance at the leadership level, that progress is unequal when looking at individual companies’ leadership, business units, and geographies.

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