Women occupy only 23.9 percent of board of directors’ seats for P&C (re)insurance companies across the US, Bermuda and Europe, a study by The Insurance Insider has shown.
While the ratio has more than doubled from 9.4 percent in 2008, this rate of change remains low. In more than a decade, women increased their presence in the boardroom by just one more seat out of 10.
It would take women another decade to reach an equal representation in the boardroom if rates of change continue at historical average levels.
For the purpose of this study, which uses data from sister company Boardex, only listed (re)insurers and brokers with current market capitalisations higher than $200mn and with P&C insurance as their main operations have been considered.
The under-representation of women in boardrooms and other leadership positions is not isolated to the P&C (re)insurance industry, it is a reality across most industries globally, especially financial services.
A 2016 report by Mercer on female representation on boards and executive-level jobs in the financial services industry found that female representation declines as career level rises and that representation at the top significantly lags other industries.
The report also found that women held 20 percent of seats on the board at financial services companies in 2016, comparable with our figure of 20.4 percent for the same year.
The majority of the companies in our study are based in the US, UK and Bermuda. Looking at these three regions individually, they each made progress over the past decade but the US and Bermuda remain at very low levels of female representation in the boardroom.
Bermuda showed the lowest level with only 16.4 percent of board seats held by women, up from 3.5 percent in 2008.
In the UK, a review panel into female board representation led by Lord Mervyn Davies has set a voluntary target for companies to achieve 33 percent female representation on FTSE 350 boards by 2020.
This goal was revised from the previous target of 25 percent by 2015, and is now higher than the 30 percent believed by campaigners to be the “tipping point” at which the representation of any minority group achieves critical mass.
The UK-based companies in our analysis are close to achieving the Davies Review 2020 target, at 32.1 percent.
Women’s representation on P&C (re)insurance boards is increasing but remains at very low levels
Overall, women have been increasingly represented in the boardrooms of P&C (re)insurance firms. However, once they’re there, they are vastly outnumbered by male counterparts.
Looking at the distribution of firms according to how many of their board seats are held by women, the trends are encouraging, pointing to eventual gender parity in the boardroom.
However, when looking at the number of seats occupied by women relative to those occupied by men, the results show the magnitude of the current gender disparity in the boardroom.
Only 11 percent of P&C carriers showed a relatively equal proportion of board seats held by men and women. We defined an equal proportion as 40-60 percent of seats being held by any one gender.
Albeit small, the 11 percent figure still shows progress, as 10 years ago no companies met this criteria.
Around 60 percent of firms have less than a quarter of board seats held by women. This fraction has significantly decreased since 2008 when the figure was 92.1 percent of P&C (re)insurers.
Nevertheless, the proportion of companies approaching gender parity has been steadily increasing. Half the companies in our study now have between 25 percent and 50 percent of their board seats occupied by women, up from only 9 percent a decade ago.
Only 6.1 percent of firms have no female representation on their board in 2019, compared to 35.5 percent in 2008.
The vast majority of the companies that have no women on their board of directors have historically never had female representation their board.
Encouraging trends
The ratio of P&C (re)insurers with women present in the boardroom has increased significantly over the past decade. The proportion of companies with at least one woman on the board has increased from 64.5 percent in 2008 to 93.9 percent in 2019, with the metric increasing each year during the period.
Moreover, the proportion of carriers with at least two women on the board reached 73.7 percent, from 31.6 percent in 2008.
This data also shows that, in 2008, half the firms with women on the board actually had only one seat held by a woman. A decade on, of the companies with women on their boards, just 21.5 percent had only one woman represented.
The ratio of P&C (re)insurers with women present in the boardroom has increased significantly over the past decade. The proportion of companies with at least one woman on the board has increased from 64.5 percent in 2008 to 93.9 percent in 2019, with the metric increasing each year during the period.
Moreover, the proportion of firms with at least two women on the board reached 73.7 percent, from 31.6 percent in 2008.
This data also shows that, in 2008, half the firms with women on the board actually had only one seat held by a woman. A decade on, of the companies with women on their boards, just 21.5 percent had only one woman represented.
The ratio of companies with three or four women holding seats has been consistently increasing, while the ratio of companies with no women on the board has drastically declined.
Meanwhile, the proportion of companies with one or two women holding seats on their board of directors remained relatively similar over the past decade.
In 2019, 20 percent of the carriers in our analysis had one woman on their boards, a quarter had two women and a quarter had three.
This is the first of a two-part analysis on female representation in the P&C (re)insurance industry. The second instalment will be published in next week's weekly issue.