Putting women in insurance in the spotlight

Fausto Parente, Executive Director

This International Women’s Day, we will be putting women in insurance in the spotlight.

While we see many women working in the insurance sector, the truth is that we don’t see as many women in senior roles as we would like.

For this reason, we are launching our ‘Women in Insurance’ initiative (#WomenInInsurance). 

Starting on Monday 8 March – to coincide with International Women’s Day – we will be shining the spotlight on some of the women that we know who are working in insurance. 

Through each profile, we will highlight the variety of career paths and roles that are on offer within the profession, as well as what makes a career in this sector rewarding. We will also be providing some advice to young people considering taking their first career steps.

Over the course of my own career, I have seen the positive impact that a gender-balanced workforce has on performance and culture. A diverse workforce encourages a broader range of opinions leading to better debate and decision making. 

This is certainly true at EIOPA, where – overall – we have a good gender balance among staff. But, I would still like to see more women in senior roles – not only at EIOPA, but also at national supervisors and industry.
Of course, attracting women to the profession is one thing. We must also make sure that women want to stay. 

At EIOPA, I am pleased to say that we have a number of measures in place that not only support career development, but also foster a work life balance for all staff, including family-friendly policies. All our staff can take advantage of flexible working policies. Parents can also benefit from parental leave and access to child-minding services. I have also seen many good policies already in place, helping to strengthen the performance across the entire sector. 

Overall, I want to encourage more women to see insurance as a rewarding career choice and our ‘Women in insurance’ series is one of the initiatives that we are taking to help us achieve this goal.

Keep following us on social media to find out more.