Women In Insurance Initiative To Embark On Comprehensive Study On The State Of Women In The Industry

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, June 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Million Women Mentors' Women in Insurance Initiative (WII) consortium announced today the launch of a data collection project designed to measure and provide insight into issues and opportunities that currently exist for women in the insurance industry. Verisk, a leading data analytics provider and member of the consortium, is leading the data collection.

WII is issuing a call to action, encouraging the insurance industry's senior leaders and HR professionals to join and include their organizations in this first-of-its-kind research and important data gathering exercise.

The WII 2019 data collection will ask companies to share valuable information about employee demographics, diversity and inclusion programs, and gender parity initiatives. Verisk will aggregate the information for release in the fall of 2019.

To provide a deep and comprehensive view of issues and opportunities for women in the insurance industry, the survey will collect detailed information about the numbers of men and women employed throughout the industry, looking at their age ranges, highest education completed, and ethnic groups. It will further examine how many women hold management positions, and what issues are driving inequality in the workplace. All responses will be kept strictly anonymous, allowing organizations to provide candid responses.

"As an organization, we are committed to speaking as a collective voice for women in insurance and acting as an instrument for change," said Margaret Resce Milkint, chair of MWM WII and managing partner of The Jacobson Group. "To enhance and elevate our diversity and inclusion efforts industrywide, we need to see real information—detailed and quality data across the entire insurance industry. The industry has been waiting for this information, and we are well on our way to meeting this goal to get the answers, to celebrate our achievements, and to set goals as an industry to do better."

"Gender inequality in general, and at leadership levels specifically, is a critical issue in the corporate world. To tackle it effectively, we need to gather, analyze, and report on granular and reliable data," said Maroun Mourad, president of commercial lines at ISO, a Verisk business. "It's a privilege for us at Verisk to play a key part of this groundbreaking work with WII. Together, we can help shed light on relevant information, identify potential areas for improvement, and support bringing about positive change."

For more information or to participate in the survey, HR professionals should contact wii@stemconnector.com.

About WII
The Women in Insurance Initiative (WII) is a consortium of organizations throughout the insurance industry committed to taking substantive and measurable action by recruiting, mentoring, and sponsoring women to drive equality in career advancement and leadership throughout the insurance industry. The mission of the WII is to increase diversity and inclusion by developing insurance as an opportunity-rich industry for women.