Structural and cultural barriers impede women advancement in insurance sector

Johannesburg - The low numbers of women in leadership positions in the insurance sector limits the pool of potential mentors who can guide young people who require career coaching and guidance to prepare them for leadership positions.

So says Eve Banda, Executive Head, People & Marketing at Hollard International. She made these observations during South Africa’s commemoration of Women’s Month in August, at a time when the challenges facing women in public, private, and working life come under the spotlight.

According to a study conducted by Deloitte, women represent only 18% of executive-level management positions globally within the Banking and Financial Services Industry (FSI).

“There are various reasons that account for slow gender diversity at leadership level in the insurance sector and the lack or shortage of female role models is a contributing factor,” Banda said. “Women who wish to be mentored by other women are frustrated, as the mentors they find are typically overwhelmed with commitments. Often, they have an already long coaching pipeline of women who aspire to go into leadership positions.”

There are structural and cultural barriers that derail women from reaching their full potential in the workplace. “The insurance sector, like many other industries, is still very much male driven due to the sheer number of men who dominate leadership positions. “I find that the way a man would coach me and the way a woman would coach me might be different and that there might be nuances that I would learn from, sometimes one needs a woman’s perspective into how things are run” she says.

Women need to learn how to network better with men without losing their identity, Banda says. They must learn how to sell their brands without being misinterpreted as selling their beauty or their bodies; they should not have their leadership styles judged as being aggressive because they speak up and have integrating femininity and ambition frowned upon. This is why a fellow woman’s mirror of that balance through mentorship, coaching and networking is important,”

Banda highlights that another factor impeding women from reaching their full potential in the workplace is the general absence of flexible work arrangements that enables them to integrate their career aspirants and motherhood.

“Building a creche in the office is not enough. We have not gotten ourselves to the level where we have open conversations about other structural barriers that make it very hard for women to be at the same level as their male counterparts,” she says. “For example, we might have studied and completed university at the same time, but 10 years later, my male counterpart will likely be at a senior level not because he is smarter, but because as a woman, I had to take a break in between to raise a family.

“The question is how are we using that time away to help one build skills and capabilities and help the woman get back into the workplace prepared to pick up her career? This can only be resolved by women having open conversations on the challenges and creating solutions that are forward looking. Solutions that future-proof their skills and capability development.

Banda mentions the mentorship programme that Hollard launched in 2018 to cater for female employees who aspire to be promoted to leadership positions. Cleverly named “Lead-her-ship”, the programme equips women with the requisite tools required to climb the corporate ladder and teaches them the “tricks of the trade” required to accelerate their career progression. The learnings that form part of this curriculum are based on case studies of what one needs to do to advance their careers.

The curriculum of the programme is intensive, Banda explains. Lead-her-ship has a programme on branding, on finding your purpose; finding what you want to be known for, and how to network with intention. The culmination of the programme is a presentation of a problem-solving scenario in Hollard to members of the senior management team.

“This is action-orientated learning. The problem scenario that the mentees need to collaborate on, and resolve is not a fictitious one, but a real and live one. The mentees are then given the opportunity to collaborate on resolving the problem and presenting their findings in front of the members of senior leadership. This exercise gives them great exposure and visibility. Remember most of these mentees can be obscured in the background and this exercise gives them a moment to be visible and to shine in front of decision makers,” says Banda.

The added benefit of this programme is that it gives women the tools to up their game in the negotiation stakes and helps to close the gender pay parity gap, Banda notes. “It empowers women to challenge their subservience when negotiating conditions of service and, salaries and teaches them to be confident enough to attach value to their skill sets, to be able to articulate their value properly and not be apologetic about their worth and the value that they bring.”

Banda says women in leadership should not be content with being a minority in the cohort of top positions. “The challenge is how do we get more women into the rooms where decisions are made? How do we teach them and give them the tool kits and cheat codes that are comprehensive enough for them to be able sell their skills with confidence? How do we help each other as women present the purposeful, best versions of ourselves? This is the question we should grapple with.”