Women in the Workplace – Insurance

Learning about the implicit biases our social environment uses in shaping our experiences from a young age, often without malicious intent, but sometimes with harmful consequences, made me think how we can change our outlook and tackle these biases as well as thinking about how we can support the individuals currently affected by them in their daily lives.

My journey then brought me into recruitment and, paradoxically, into the field of Insurance mathematicians; me of all people: someone who needs a calculator for everything! Working with companies and helping them source the right candidates, I heard more and more that there was a need for female actuaries to help correct the imbalance at both team and leadership level. It made me wonder why there was nearly an equal number of men and women graduating in mathematics, but so few women interested in and open to the insurance industry?

I know I had my prejudices when I started working in this industry, and I routinely worked with candidates who had similar ones -- the main one being that insurance companies are old-fashioned and the job boring (as many of you hopefully know, this is not the case). I also questioned why there is still a lack of female leaders, despite there being an (albeit slow) rethinking at most companies on how to support women.

I knew I had the perfect opportunity to get to the bottom of these questions and directly ask women in the insurance industry about their experiences. In our talks we discussed a few ways to eradicate some of the prejudices and they gave advice on how to climb the career ladder and get the support you need to reach your goals, even in a (still) male dominated environment.  

Firstly, I talked with Maren Schmidt, Senior Manager at Deloitte, and we had an interesting discussion about stereotypes, struggles and how to juggle family and work life as a successful manager in one of the world’s biggest consultancies.

Find the video here.
 

Video is in German only

Keep an eye out for my next videos, which took me to Hamburg for not just one, but many, exciting conversations at ERGO

Author: Marleen Weiske, JCW