WOMEN IN RE
Pandemics, presenteeism and putting yourself forward
Women have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with existing inequalities between men and women exacerbated in almost all areas of life. But is there hope for the future?
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major challenge for gender equality in the workplace across the spectrum, from women being over-represented in the industries worst affected by the crisis to the significant impact of lockdowns on work-life balance.
Indeed, in the past year, one in three women has considered leaving the workforce or downshifting her career—a significant increase from one in four in the first few months of the pandemic, according to McKinsey & Company’s “Women in the Workplace 2021” report.
Speaking to Intelligent Insurer as part of a panel, Lisa Bartlett, president, UK & Ireland at Crawford & Company, said: “Undoubtedly the pandemic has had a greater impact on the wellbeing of our women. They’ve borne the brunt of balancing home, work and homeschooling. There’s definitely been a significant impact.”
According to the European Commission’s March 2021 report on gender equality in the EU, women spent, on average, 62 hours per week caring for children (compared to 36 hours for men) and 23 hours per week doing housework (15 hours for men).
It’s too early to say what effect the pandemic will have in the longer term, but Bartlett is optimistic that it will be a positive impact.
“We have seen geographic constraints become much less important,” she said. “As more companies move to flexible and agile working models, that will ultimately provide many more opportunities for women. I’m certainly seeing that in my own workplace.”
Melissa Collett, professional standards director at the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), also hopes there will be a positive outcome, but believes the jury is still out.
The CII’s Insuring Women’s Futures “Living a financially resilient life in the UK beyond COVID-19” report found that before lockdown, the gender pay gap was expected to close in 2050 in the UK. Now, the closure of the gap has been delayed until 2110.
“It’s due to a number of reasons, including the idea that women are still the primary caregivers for both their children and their older parents,” Collett said, adding that they are spending a larger proportion of time on non-work activity, which means that careers can suffer.
“My concern is that renewed ‘presenteeism’ will leave women out or at a disadvantage. I want to be an optimist about it, but I want to sound a few notes of caution. We’ve also had a lot of research about women bearing the brunt of domestic abuse during the pandemic, which has also severely affected financial resilience.”
“My concern is that renewed ‘presenteeism’ will leave women out or at a disadvantage.”
Melissa Collett, Chartered Insurance Institute
Leadership lessons
Lara Pedley, managing director, global at ISC Group, and panel chair, added that a survey of the ISC Group’s members to gauge how they were responding to the pandemic and all the increased demands they were experiencing found that “despite everything, our members saw an increase in their mental and physical wellbeing throughout the pandemic”.
“This won’t be the same story for everybody but as an average, that’s what the data shows. Before the pandemic, and having no flexibility was impacting women specifically,” she said.
The panellists discussed how women do not put themselves forward in work environments as much as men. In an increasingly virtual world, this can be a major problem.
“Being less present in the office and workplace will have an impact on progression and visibility. You have to be very strategic in how you’re going to counteract that impact,” said Pedley.
Collett added: “Women are conditioned not to put themselves forward as much as men. The problem with that is that in business perception is everything—you need to be visible and you need to let people know you’re doing a good job. If nobody knows about it, how are you to progress?”
Shruti Deshmukh, product manager, models at RMS, said she had also struggled with speaking up for herself.
“That’s another part of sponsorship and mentorship. We can do great work at our desks, but if we don’t have a sponsor who will make us more visible, it’s really hard,” she said.
Deshmukh added that allyship between women is crucial.
“It needs to happen more often so that we can help each other. Together we can uplift each other,” she said.
For Lisa Bartlett, president, UK & Ireland at Crawford & Company, mentoring and coaching are key. She explained that having an “unrelenting focus on elevating others” is crucial.
“Surrounding yourself with great people and having the confidence to go and find people who could potentially go further than you creates a very different performance culture,” she said. “It does require better coaching, mentoring and feedback both ways, but I believe that’s the key to unlocking true potential and teamwork.”
Abina Kealy, chief accounting officer at PartnerRe, also believes that you are only as good as the team of people that are working with you.
“That’s been one of my biggest learnings—having the confidence to bring the people that are probably better at some things than you are and let them shine. You learn from them and trust that you actually don’t need to know it all,” she said.
“There’s plenty of limelight to share and go around. Watching talent, developing it and not compromising on it is my biggest learning.”
“Watching talent, developing it and not compromising on it is my biggest learning.”
Abina Kealy, PartnerRe
Opportunities in ESG
Finally, Marisa Savage, partner in the PwC Bermuda insurance practice, focused specifically on some of the opportunities in the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) space.
On the environmental side, Savage noted, outside the reinsurance industry “there’s a bit of a scare that the ‘E’ is going to provide more opportunities for men because it’s in things such as construction and building wind farms as opposed to oil rigs”.
“But in the insurance industry, it’s pretty clear that product development is going to be very interesting—thinking about new ways of doing things and developing strategy for the company—and women can bring a lot to the table for that,” she added.
PwC’s “2021 Annual Corporate Directors Survey” found that 87 percent of women board directors are concerned or very concerned with climate change, whereas only 67 percent of men said they were concerned or very concerned.
Savage explained: “When you look at board composition there is only 28 to 30 percent of women on boards. The other 70 percent are men, and I’m sitting here wondering how are we going to solve the climate change problem when 70 percent of those sitting on the board aren’t even concerned? If that’s an area you’re interested in then you can go ahead and forge that trail.”
On the governance and social sides, Savage explained that huge goals are being set and reporting is required.
“When companies have to put out there what their pay gap is, they’re going to be very motivated to show improvement on that year-on-year. We’ve all heard it 100 times—if it doesn’t get measured, it doesn’t get done,” she said.
It’s clear that these gaps are now being measured and people are concerned about gender equality.
Savage concluded: “If you’re a woman and you’re concerned about where your path is going, you need to have a conversation because people are concerned too and want to make these changes. The opportunity is there.”
Image: Shutterstock / Roman Samborskyi
