Like so many of her peers in the market, Sian Aspinall (pictured), CEO of the credit and political risk insurance specialist BPL Group, wasn’t targeting the insurance sector when she started her career – and she’s seen ample change since entering the market three decades ago.
At the time, the London market was quite an alien culture to her, she said, as it was exceptionally male-dominated – probably around 90%, with incredibly few female underwriters.
“But I think it is also worth noting how very class-driven it was,” she said. “At that stage, there were clear backgrounds which fell broadly into two camps – the more socially privileged, which dominated our marketplace and then, within the marine market, the more aspirational – what Blair might have referred to as the ‘Mondeo man’. Those were the two extremes, and if you didn’t relate, you were slightly a fish out of water.”
The marketplace itself was almost “theatrical” in how it operated, she said, constructed to create a difference, a certain psychological disadvantage. Insurers sat on chairs. Brokers sat on stools, looking up to the insurer. “If you were a junior who wasn’t particularly sure about not just your subject matter, but also your position in life, while feeling like an outsider due to your gender… it really didn't help you build much confidence.
“The language that was used, too, wasn't what I was used to – in fact, it felt that the terminology was deliberately there to make you feel like you didn't belong. You were almost being launched onto a stage, but you didn't know what part you were playing.”
The perception 30 years ago was that insurance was not a very attractive place for a woman to start a career, Aspinall said. And she believes that perception was often held by the women in question themselves. The idea was that you had to be steely and almost aggressive to succeed, she said, because how else were going to fit?
“But at the same time, I think a lot of us were questioning whether that was an attractive proposition,” she said. “Do you want to have to fight for everything? And do you want to have to internalise that fight to the extent where it might change you intrinsically? I had real determination to succeed, but if I had to change who I was to fit in, I wasn't prepared to do it.”
However, she noted that the dialogue has obviously changed since then. “I have a group of senior female friends in the industry,” she said, “and, throughout the years, we have tracked our careers and broken through some of those barriers together. It was unheard of, at one point, to maintain your position in your career and working flexibly while having young children.
“We would pep talk each other and say, ‘Well, if we don't ask at this level of seniority when we have a bargaining position, we're not going to make it easier for the next generation’,” she shared. “We were very conscious about that. We did feel a sense of responsibility for the next generation because there was a generation ahead of us who had to work harder and change more than we had to, but they paved the way for us to be a bit more like ourselves.
“Therefore, we felt that we needed to push those barriers again to make it that little bit easier for those coming through. And I'd like to think we have.”
Aspinall noted that there is now a lot of celebration of women in insurance and vastly more awareness of the value of DEI and supportive initiatives across the industry. However, she said, she would still question how much of that awareness is translated into action – particularly with regards to the more senior layers within organisations.
“Recently I attended a CEOs’ meeting for the London market and there were three women in a packed auditorium that holds probably 250 people,” she said. “I’m always an optimist and though I recognise the huge progress made, I’m yet to see the critical mass and access at that senior level to achieve real parity within the insurance industry.
“Also, I would say that this conversation only starts at gender – it is just the most obvious one because it is easier to “balance”, than, say, ethnicity, social class or sexuality. But it does help create awareness that our industry should reflect wider society if we do, as we claim, operate at the heart of it. There is still a lot of work to do here.”
Sharing insight into how the industry can champion women at the top level – and aid the retention of senior women in insurance, Aspinall underscored that there is no secret recipe for success. This is a challenge with which a majority of sectors struggle, she said, not just insurance. But pulling from her own experiences, she advised focusing on understanding reading an individual’s needs and how they might evolve through their career.
For her, it was about generating confidence at the start – later, it was flexibility that allowed her to push into the next layer. For someone else, she said, it might be identifying a role model in action to focus their ambition. Once you've landed on the right measure for the individual in question, it unlocks that progression.
Secondly, she said she believes companies can do more to let down guardrails slightly and collaborate on cross-industry networks to create wider, trusted sounding boards for women in insurance. “Some of the people who've helped me most in my career have been those who were going through the same things in different organisations, but within the same sector,” she said.
“I think striking a balance between providing access to a wider cohort and community, but without creating too much rigidity in terms of what it means to achieve is also key to fostering the type of organic, trusted relationships that will support these women as they rise through the ranks.”
