These women CEOs are leading the way in the path to 'insured' India

For decades, women have worked in the insurance sector but they were hardly seen as potential leaders. These women worked hard to climb the corporate ladder, juggling home and office, and battling gender biases.

Things have changed for the better in 2021, with more women breaching the glass ceiling. Diversity is not just an HR buzzword. There are six women heading insurance companies.

However, women are chief executives in only two of the 24 life insurers and four of the 34 non-life insurance firms, making only 10% of the CEOs across the sector. But it is far better than other sectors including manufacturing, automobiles, FMCG, retail and e-commerce.

At an industry level, gender diversity stands at roughly 22 percent in the industry with direct employees of about 570,000 people. In the agency channel, 21 percent of 5,15,000 general insurance agents are women while 27 percent of the 2.27 million life insurance agents are women.

"While calling out inequality is key, a supportive environment at home and enabling policies at workplace are also important

- Shanai Ghosh of Edelweiss General Insurance

Speaking to Moneycontrol, women CEOs heading insurance companies said that there has indeed been a sea-change in the way women are treated at workplaces. These include more acceptance for women leaders, better work-life balance as well as flexible HR policies to meet the special needs of men and women who need to spend more time at home with ailing family members.
Then versus now

Anamika Roy Rashtrawar MD & CEO of IFFCO Tokio General Insurance said that when she had joined the industry as a direct recruit officer about three decades ago, she saw clerical women staff facing their own challenges.

“These women had to juggle between household chores, official responsibilities and in the process lost their personal ambition at the workplace. Sometimes success was also attributed to certain compromises made by individuals,” she added.

Back in the 1980s, gender ratios in the insurance industry were so skewed. that office facilities and strategies did not take into account the different needs of women.

Also Read: Women CEOs missing in Nifty50 companies 
The former female chief executive of a large insurance company recalls that some branch offices did not have a ladies toilet.

“Since there were hardly women employees, a lot of branch offices had a common urinal meant for males. It used to be a task to go to neighbourhood public toilets. The insurers themselves were not at fault because women were a handful and they probably didn’t feel the need to offer separate facilities,” she added.

Women CEOs are seeing a lot of changes in the insurance sector.

Shanai Ghosh, ED & CEO, Edelweiss General Insurance said leadership opportunities for women were improving, but numbers are still very low.

“This number will move up only if we are able to nurture and sustain the ambition of young women through the middle years and take away some of the symbolism associated with ambition, such as post-work socialisation, face time in office among others,” she added.

On the one hand, she said while calling out inequality is key and paramount, what is more important is that women get a supportive environment at home and enabling policies at the workplace.

In fact, with the pandemic taking away a lot of the usual misgivings about work from home, Ghosh said that we should see more flexibility at work.

RM Vishakha, MD & CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance said now a lot of efforts are made at the top for diversity to ensure a good image.

"Now we see millennials that are very focussed on work-life balance. So that is a great leveller. This includes both males and females and this is also helping the diversity cause," she added.

Talking about her own journey, Vishakha recalled her first job at public-sector insurer New India Assurance.

"There was a defined process with gender-neutral entrance tests and whoever cleared the test would face an interview panel which at least had one female representative," she added.

But in her three-decade career, Vishakha also felt there are a lot of unconscious biases against women including discouragement and short-term productivity focus.

She said short-term productivity focus meant there could be discrimination against hiring women only on the basis of how they could possibly go on maternity leave or take more time off from work.

"Now there is clear data to prove that there are real benefits to hiring women. So companies are also looking at gender diversity from a long-term business perspective," she said.

How do these women CEOs ensure diversity?

Having a women chief executive may not automatically increase gender diversity. This is done through a diverse set of HR practices and company policies.

At IFFCO Tokio General, Rashtrawar said the company does not look at gender while hiring and promoting.

"We are proud that It is an equal-opportunity workplace," she said.

A study by diversity and inclusion consulting firm Avtar showed that women constitute 33 percent of the workforce at the entry-level.

By the time they reach the manager level, the number of women drops to 23 percent, and to 16 percent at the mid-manager level. At the corporate executive level, they make up only 14 percent.

So, having a gender-neutral policy also helps to eliminate any inherent gender biases.

At Edelweiss Group, Ghosh said women comprised 21 percent of the employee base and 13 percent of senior leadership.

"Our Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) council is headed by a woman and comprises heads of various critical departments including corporate development & investor relations, marketing & communications, compliance & governance, human resources and administration - all women. As the leader of Edelweiss General Insurance, I can say it is a fairly gender-neutral workplace, people get opportunities based on merit, gender is not a consideration, people also get flexibility based on their specific requirements," she added.

Corporates in India also talk about being 'gender-blind' meaning that they completely ignore gender-related differences while recruiting. This means that women's different biological needs may not be considered.

IndiaFirst's Vishakha is of the view that women need to accept that they are different and also work towards proving themselves. At her company, she said it was not the number of hours spent on the job that matters, but the outcome. She said there was no compromise on the outcome expectations, irrespective of gender.

While inclusion is at the core of their strategy, even she needs to prove her gender neutrality.

"There is a backlash that even I face. I have to prove that I am not biased towards women while hiring. It is very clear that I will not hire an incompetent female over a competent man merely on the basis of gender," she added.

According to Avtar & Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies for Women in India study, women’s representation has not only risen, but women’s participation at the leadership level has surged.
What more could be done?

Human resource experts are of the view that India is still miles away from the ideal 50-50 mix, but early signs of progress are visible.

Sanjana Tripathi, a Delhi-based consultant who advises companies on diversity issues said that it is the mid-sized and small companies in areas like fintech, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals that need to mend their ways.

"Insurance sector still has a good presence of females, be it at offices or at an agency level. But there is room for improvement and additional training on gender issues even for sales staff would go a long way," she said.

She said instances of casual remarks on female sales colleagues pertaining to their menstrual cycles led to a life insurance company losing five women in the team one month.

"It may not be intended to be hurtful but blaming women for their biological differences is not appropriate. Such a work environment also discourages women from applying for a job," she said.

Patricia Margaret Lobo, a corporate trainer from Mumbai, explained that offering support and flexibility to female colleagues during and after maternity leaves is also crucial and determines whether they will come back or not.

"I had an insurance client that had two members of the actuarial team going on maternity leave at the same time. This was purely a coincidence but I believe some snide remarks were passed on the 'timing' of their maternity leaves. These women felt neglected and unappreciated in the workforce and never returned. In fact, they went and joined rival companies," Lobo said.

The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act 2017 increased the paid leave for maternity from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. This evoked mixed reactions from corporates, with smaller companies even resorting to not hire women of a certain age-group at all.

Gender equality may be the ultimate aim, but women still have multiple obstacles to overcome. But as these women CEOs say, there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Women just need to get up and cross it.