Representing half the world’s population, women often find themselves overlooked in a working environment, however, many sectors and corporations in recent years have been stepping up efforts to address this issue.
In the captive insurance industry, among other initiatives, Amplify Women is a task force that was set up by the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) in August 2019. Although women dominate the insurance industry, there is a dramatic fall in the number of women that hold senior-level roles. The aim of CICA’s Amplify Women is to offer women opportunities for education, networking and influence in the captive insurance industry.
Almost one year on
So what has CICA’s Amplify Women task force achieved since its launch last year?
Member of the task force, Alicia Miller, senior tax accountant at Crowe, said that since the launch, “we have developed a strong and dedicated group with each member supporting our goals as a committee”.
Miller explains that the COVID-19 pandemic altered their plans for the CICA conference – which had to be cancelled earlier this year – but added that they are currently working on developing different ways to connect with the industry during this time.
Anjanette Fowler, director of business development and relationship management at Madison Scottsdale, and CICA’s newly appointed Amplify Women committee chair, says: “We immediately got to work searching for opportunities to shine a spotlight on captive industry women pioneers, as well as newcomers that are already leading us into our future, highlighting their contributions and achievements.” Fowler notes that they have also been focusing on fostering industry award nominations for deserving women in the industry as well as helping facilitate media opportunities to increase their industry visibility.
Reflecting on if women are still missing out on being hired for leadership positions, Anne Marie Towle, global captive solutions leader at Hylant, believes many women are considered at times for leadership positions, however, she notes that “women don’t always feel comfortable or confident in raising their hands”.
“Women tend to believe they need more experience or demonstrated proven capabilities prior to being considered for a leadership position,” Towle adds.
In addition, Fowler highlights that while the industry is making great strides on this issue, she feels that there is still room for improvement.
She notes: “I’d like to believe we are within ‘the last mile’, but perhaps we are a bit further out than that.”
Fowler points out that organisations that embrace a broad and diverse leadership approach that is inclusive of women achieve measurably better results financially, and otherwise, as evidenced in study after study.
“Women bring tremendous contributions to the success and leadership prospects for an organisation when they have a seat at the table,” she adds.
Don’t hold back
Some studies have revealed that women feel childbearing holds their careers back – young women generally believe they miss out on senior-roles as employers believe they will be either planning on starting a family or have one to take care of.
One study suggested that men generally do not face this sort of sigma that women are subjected to, as women try to shake off the idea that they are the sole carers of children. Families also now come in different sizes - children can be from a one-parent home, with a mother or a father, or have step-parents, or even same- sex parents.
However, the pregnancy itself is a major factor – nearly every country in the world, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has some sort of maternity leave, except the US, which has none.
According to the OECD, the average paid maternity leave in the EU is 22.1 weeks.
Towle suggests that the ‘work-life balance’ for child-rearing is still viewed as a female issue.
She highlights that particularly with younger females building a career, many still struggle with the promotability and family obligations. She explains it is a challenge and many women need guidance and assistance working through the career and life rewards.
“Amplify Women can be a sounding board and support females throughout their careers,” she says.
Miller adds that naturally, women feel the most burden when it comes to this subject.
She comments: “I can speak from experience having my son in October of 2018, I see first-hand the work-life balance struggle. However, I am extremely grateful to work for a company that is beyond supportive of working parents and giving us the flexibility that is often needed. I will say, although women feel like a burden especially in the early years of having children, men also must balance work and life responsibilities and can also feel that pressure,” she adds.
In addition, Fowler generally, believes work-life balance regarding child-rearing is still viewed as a female issue still holds true.
However, Fowler argues: “I do believe the issue has been evolving rather dramatically over the last five-ten years. I hear about more instances of women being the primary financial provider outside of the home, with men being open and willing to break with our deep-rooted traditional roles and mores on this front.”
“I do think women and men have become much more comfortable with women being the primary financial provider for their families than in the past, while dads take child-rearing responsibilities on. It’s a great thing,” she adds.
Passing on the wisdom
Looking at how young women who want to join the industry with ambitions and how they should reach senior-level positions, Towle’s advice is to always ask questions and raise your hand to learn a new business line, client or overall process.
She explains: “The more well-rounded a young person is, particularly with many different project involvements, the better off in the long run and will create opportunities for senior- level positions.”
“Organisations seek individuals with varied backgrounds and creative ways of managing and delivering solutions to their clients/customers.
The more diverse the experiences of a female striving for a leadership position, the outcome will be successful with a fulfilling career, Towle notes.
Miller identifies that women should continue to learn and develop their knowledge within the industry and most importantly build strong relationships with the people in their network.
She highlights: “Your network is your strongest asset and will be what supports you throughout your entire career.”
In addition, Fowler thinks it is important to not be afraid to ask for help. To identify a leader that exemplifies your own goals for your career and reach out to them.
“See if they would be willing to mentor you, or at least share their story as to how they achieved their success and, more importantly, what mistakes they made along the way—those are the priceless nuggets’, she comments.
“Eventually, you will have an excellent guidebook of industry wisdom that coupled with your own unique talents and ideas will be an invaluable resource in mapping your journey to a senior-level role.”
Dan Towle, president of CICA
Why do you think it’s important for initiatives like CICA’s Amplify Women?
The captive industry is on the leading edge of what is happening in insurance and risk management. It is important to draw bright, talented individuals into the industry so we will have the diversity of talent the next generation of captive professionals will need. People will stay to work where they are valued and supported and where they see they can advance. We hope that today’s Amplify Women initiative will support women in building their captive careers and help everyone in our space to better understand the benefits of fostering and promoting individuals based on talent, without gender bias or other filters.
How do you think CICA’s Amplify Women programme will help to promote women into more senior-level roles?
The captive industry is probably a little better than the overall insurance industry. We see examples of women leaders in senior positions at some of the largest captive management firms. Through Amplify Women we want to not only connect and support future women leaders, but we also want to celebrate the success of current women leaders. By recognising successful women and role models in the captive industry, and making them more visible, we can inspire more future leaders.
What has Amplify Women accomplished?
Last Summer, when we launched Amplify Women, one of our goals was to have more opportunities for women speakers at our conference. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the conference due to COVID-19. The conference programme committee worked hard to diversify our speaker lineup to provide more opportunities for women and young professionals resulting in 40 percent of our speakers being women. As our association partners develop virtual events and programmes, we encourage them to see what opportunities they can create for women speakers
New committee chair: Anjanette Fowler
You were recently appointed to chair the Amplify Women programme, as chair what are your aims?
The CICA board did an extraordinary job of drawing together an incredible group of female thought leaders and innovators in our industry. While I was not involved in the critical early work, I am honoured to join forces with this fantastic group as a member and committee chair. Beyond our activities to bring visibility and recognition to women in the captive insurance industry, other critical pieces to our success will hinge on growing and expanding our Amplify Women membership and expanding our male captive industry ally partners. We already have many strong industry allies; however, we need to challenge ourselves, and our allies, in exploring additional ways we can bring women to centre stage in leading roles. We will have accomplished all our goals when the need for Amplify Women no longer exists because we’ve achieved parity across every measurable metric.
Do you feel gender bias is present in the captive insurance industry?
Maybe because I’ve been around for so long, I have a broader window of experiences in seeing the positive changes on this front as well as areas we still have room to improve. To varying degrees, I believe it is still present in many industries, and not unique to the captive space. And whether female or male, we are all likely subconsciously guilty of expressing it in some way, shape, or form. Having a willingness to self-examine to gain awareness of where we each might hold a gender bias and how it manifests in our day-to-day experiences will go a long way in eliminating them. The captive industry has made a concerted effort to address the issue, and I do see the changes as a result.
What does Amplify Women aim to work towards over the next 12 months? What is on your agenda?
I would personally like to see our Amplify Women membership grow exponentially. The key to achieving that will centre around continuing to share our message and goals every chance we get, in part by building on our networking opportunities, not only at large national or international conferences but on a regional and local level.
We also hope to use our newly discovered virtual networking event possibilities—something we have already embraced as a result of our current circumstance. We held our first Amplify Women Virtual Happy Hour networking event recently, and I think we were all pleasantly surprised by how fun and successful it was in getting to know our captive industry colleagues.
Secondly, and I already touched on this, although, I don’t think the importance of Amplify Women allies can be overstated. Our aim is not to be a women-only club or sorority. We want to effect change, and it will take everyone’s involvement and buy-in to accomplish that. The more members we have supporting efforts and embracing our goals, regardless of gender, the faster and more effective we will be in achieving them.
And last, but certainly not least as Amplify Women is a dynamic collective that will embrace the issues in front of us as they unfold, I personally would like to see our Amplify Women group help lead the charge in bridging our industry talent gap. CICA and its board are doing fantastic work on this critical issue with its NextGen and mentoring initiatives.
Amplify Women can support that important work by in hosting opportunities to get out there in front of young people and share with them their personal stories, the exciting things our industry is doing, and the unlimited possibilities a career in the captive industry holds. In doing so, we not only support the efforts of our NextGen colleagues but as Amplify Women, we truly exemplify the leadership women bring to the captive industry.
