Diversity Special Report: A focus on gender

There is perhaps no more appropriate way to begin our dive into gender diversity and discrimination than with a stark statistic: 51 percent of women believe that their career progression in insurance has been held back by their gender.

This included concerns around not being taken as seriously as men; having to push to demonstrate capability and to gain opportunities that were otherwise automatically afforded to men; and having roles restricted based on gender stereotypes.

As a note to readers, sex refers to the different biological characteristics of males and females (such as reproductive organs and hormones), while gender refers to socially and culturally constructed characteristics, including norms, roles and relationships. In turn, gender identity is a highly individualistic and internal sense of self.

Of the survey respondents, 61.5 percent were assigned female at birth, while 36.7 percent were assigned male at birth. In addition, 97 percent reported that their gender identity matched the sex assigned at birth.

The survey highlighted a “pervasive bias” in assigning men to leadership or senior roles, while women were more likely to be charged with relational and organisational roles and responsibilities.

“Women – especially those at the beginning of their careers in finance – are not taken as being as credible as men”

Female respondents working in HR departments in particular reported that despite holding senior roles – such as HR director or head of HR – they were often viewed as nothing more than an “admin resource”, and were not allocated a team or any other administrative support.

Women also reported gendered expectations, such as being told to organise buying gifts for departing colleagues.

One woman reported ordering food for a board meeting – which she was also taking part in as a head of department. While she assumed this would lead to her being positively perceived as a team player thinking of others on top of her own responsibilities, it was then assumed that she would order sandwiches for every meeting going forward, even ones that she was not a part of.

Respondents noted that advantages were more likely to be handed to men, and particularly to those that were personal contacts of senior people within a company.

This usually meant sharing higher socio-economic backgrounds, and interests such as cricket, golf, football and rugby.

This is a case where exclusion is not direct, and may not even seem a point of significance to those that are ‘in the club’, but can have a profoundly isolating effect and further exacerbate existing gendered activities, both within and outside of a company.

78% reported a gender pay gap in their firm

Employers with more than 250 employees must now report gender pay gap data, providing an insight into the previously ultra-taboo subject of salary.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reported that in 2022-23, the median gender pay gap in financial and insurance activities was 22.2 percent.

This is higher than the reported national average for all employees (full-time and part-time) of 14.9 percent, which was published by the Office for National Statistics in April 2022.

Last year, the Financial Conduct Authority noted in its pay gap data report that the gender pay gap is larger for bonuses than for base pay.

“I had a male teammate, younger than me and with no qualifications, whom I had trained, and this manager promoted him above me and increased his pay. He sent an email wherein he acknowledged that I would be left dealing with the work of three people on my own, but we needed to foster the male colleague’s career and ‘allow him to thrive’”

This is mainly driven by the inherent imbalances in the distribution of colleagues across different roles and grade levels.

In addition, for firms that award bonuses as a percentage of annual salary, the bonus gap will also be impacted by women starting on a lower comparative salary, as well as by the distribution of part-time workers, which are more likely to be female owing to childcare responsibilities.

Within the survey, 78 percent of female respondents reported a gender pay gap at their organisation.

One respondent noted that even when not criticising women within the company, male colleagues still found a way to cast women as frivolous and materialistic, with one reported as saying: “Well you know how it is, right? You get your pay cheque and then you get your wife to come in, take the pay cheque and go shopping with it.”

Explicit discrimination

Respondents across the survey reported experiencing discrimination, prejudice and microaggressions based on gender stereotypes. Intersectional discrimination – a new, mutated form of ignorance – targets women not just for being women, but also based on age, pregnancy and maternity.

73 percent of respondents that reported experiencing prejudice or discrimination at work said it related to sex, while 8 percent related to pregnancy and maternity.

For the latter, respondents that had become pregnant or had children reported that this had impacted their career, particularly opportunities for progression, as “out of sight, out of mind” during maternity leave or while working flexibly (see below for more on this).

Even when present, pregnant women are not immune to discrimination. In one team-wide meeting, a manager was reported to have told a pregnant colleague that her morning sickness was psychological.

Ignorance concerning women, reproduction and menstruation extends to a lack of understanding around menopause. One respondent said: “On an all-employee call our menopause policy was mentioned and a colleague turned to the nearest woman over 40 and said, ‘that’s for you that is’.”

“It is men who are disadvantaged, toxic feminism and misandry is rampant. Incompetent women are recruited and promoted over men regularly”

Amid highly vulnerable accounts of sexual harassment in the workplace, including one woman being called “Sixty-Nine” by a senior colleague throughout a work night out, there was still a very small number of participants who said that men, particularly white men, are being discriminated against.

“It is men who are disadvantaged, toxic feminism and misandry is rampant. Incompetent women are recruited and promoted over men regularly,” said one respondent.

With equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives provoking such reactions, increased education on gender- and sex-based discrimination is more important now than ever before.