As in many other industries, the insurance sector shows a decline in the proportion of women as hierarchical level increases. The female share starts at 59% in non-management and drops to 23% in top management — a decrease of 36 percentage points. In many industries, a significant drop in female representation occurs between lowest and lower management levels. This pattern is also seen in the insurance industry, where the share of women decreases by 12 percentage points between these two levels. However, the largest drop occurs earlier: the share of women in lowest management is 16 percentage points lower than in non-management. This indicates that women in the insurance sector face obstacles entering management positions in general.
In both lowest/lower management and middle/top management, the share of women in recruitment and promotion is slightly above the current female representation in each respective level. This suggests that recruitment and promotions contribute to slightly increasing the proportion of women in management positions.
However, in both cases, the share of women recruited or promoted remains below the proportion of women in the pipeline for these levels. For example, in lowest/lower management, 51% of promotions go to women, while women make up 59% of the pipeline — non-management — resulting in an 8 percentage point gap. The proportion of women is noticeably higher here than in the other types of personnel movements. A similar pattern is seen in middle/top management, where 29% of promotions go to women, also 8 percentage points lower than the share of women in the pipeline, represented by the lowest/lower management levels.
The Glass Ceiling Index of 3.4 is among the highest across all industries. This indicates that women face substantial barriers in reaching middle and top management. To change this, increased consideration of women in recruitment and promotion to management positions is needed.
Men in the insurance industry work at average employment rates of at least 95% across all levels — a figure that is higher than in other industries. Among women, part-time work is more common, at least to a certain extent, in non-management and lowest management. In non-management, women work at average rates of 85%, and in lowest management at 87%. In lower management, average employment rates for women is 90%, which is eight percentage points lower than those of men. In middle and top management, full-time work is the norm for both women and men.