Why I am excited to be a Women in Protection ambassador
A few weeks ago, I received an email from the excellent Women in Protection team following up on a conversation that we had at an event last year. The network is looking for ambassadors who can help champion women in protection and the need for our industry to be better representative of the society we serve. At Protection Guru we fully support the need for more inclusivity and as such I personally was honoured to be asked. It is International Women’s Day this Friday and in advance of this I thought I would share just a few reasons why we fully support the #InspireInclusion theme.
My first reason is a personal one. I am the proud dad of a super intelligent and independent 10-year-old young lady (who acts like she is 16). Like pretty much all parents, we encourage her to chase her dreams and tell her that she can be whatever she wants to be when she grows up. It is hugely noticeable however, that gender stereotypes have filtered down even to her.
The England women’s football team (and Arsenal women’s team) are doing a fantastic job to break down gender barriers in sport, not just football, but when I look around there are still so many areas of society where gender diversity is invisible.
In the protection industry we are lucky to have so many amazing women operating at all different levels from the boardrooms down. Each works phenomenally hard and are an inspiration not just to women but the entire industry. I could certainly see my daughter looking in wanting to follow in their footsteps. What I would hate to see is for her to look in and not want to join the industry as it is too male dominated. As an industry I do believe we have come a long way, but there is still so much morethat we can do.
Much of what we deliver was originally designed by men and lets face it has predominantly designed for men. Support for common health issues such as symptoms of the menopause are all but invisible in our products.
In terms of income protection, the split of male/female policies according the 2023 Swiss Re Term & Health report has remained pretty consistent at around 60% male to 40%. This is not representative of a population that is actually 51% female. Is this a result of the product better reflecting a male’s working life than a females?
The Women in Protection network does an amazing job of promoting inclusion and Protection Guru and I are delighted to be asked to be involved. We have an array of phenomenal women in our team that all do their part in bringing the Protection Guru proposition to market and fully support this cause. There will be more from us on the subject coming!
To find out more about the Women in Protection network, click here
Are you joining us in our Protection Forum this Wednesday?
In a fantastic opportunity to further discuss the above, our March protection forum will be discussing “Are protection products flexible enough to keep track with clients lives in 2024 and beyond”. As always, we are expecting a lively debate with many different voices adding to the conversation and would be delighted if you could join us.
If you would like to attend and even be part of the discussion, you can register here;
