On International Women’s Day this Sunday, the Australian insurance sector can point to significant gains for women. However, the latest data on pay rates and leadership numbers show the industry still has some big gender equality challenges to solve.
Data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) gives a compelling snapshot: Women are now the majority of the workforce in the broader financial-and-insurance sector (53%), yet they hold a smaller share of manager roles (43%) and an even smaller portion of key management positions (34%) - with women making up just 13% of CEOs. Pay levels for women also have a way to go. In its latest 2024–25 scorecard, the WGEA put the average remuneration gender pay gap across financial services at 21% - “for every dollar a man makes… a woman earns 79c” - and also reported the CEO total remuneration gender pay gap at 26%. That compares very poorly to the rest of the economy where ABS statistics put the gender pay gap at a much lower 8%.
In recent years the industry has moved significantly towards gender equality and is an even playing field from some perspectives - but there's still work to do.
One view is that, day-to-day, the barriers have largely fallen away - particularly in teams that have modernised quickly, with more visible female role models and a stronger expectation of respectful, inclusive workplaces.
“From my perspective, I would say it’s an even playing field,” said Daisy Galvin (pictured left), senior underwriter, PFR for Markel.
For more than a decade, Galvin has worked with Markel and other insurers in London and now Sydney. Her experience charts some recent significant and positive shifts towards full equality.
“I think it’s clear that insurance hasn’t always been women-friendly, but expectations are changing,” she said. “I started out 13 years ago in a team of seven - I was the only female. Now at Markel, I’m in a team of 10, and there is a 50–50 split, so that shows how much things have changed.”
Galvin’s experience is supported by the data. WGEA’s latest scorecard shows promotions from non-manager to manager are now 50:50 and that boards are “edging closer to parity” (women are 33% of board members and 21% of board chairs). There’s also evidence that reporting and transparency are pushing action: WGEA’s 2024–25 scorecard reports a 0.7 percentage point drop in the gender pay gap (to 21.1%) compared with the prior year.
However, where many stakeholders say the “even playing field” argument starts to fray is in the concentration of men in many of the higher-paying insurance jobs and the reality that leadership pipelines are still not balanced. So the sector’s gender balance weakens the higher you climb and, at 20%, the sector’s pay gap remains one of the worst across the business landscape.
Katrina Shanks (pictured right), CEO of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF), framed the current situation as one of material improvement, with caveats.
“We’ve seen meaningful progress across the insurance industry in Australia and New Zealand over the past decade,” said Shanks.
But she argued that the remaining barriers are concentrated in the exact years when many careers either accelerate, or stall, as family responsibilities peak.
“While progress has been encouraging, many women still face challenges balancing career progression with family responsibilities, particularly during the years when leadership opportunities often arise,” she said.
Shanks pointed to some practical levers that are shifting outcomes: gender balance targets; accountability; stronger reporting frameworks; and a renewed focus on flexible work, parental leave, and mentoring/sponsorship to keep women moving into senior roles rather than stepping sideways or out altogether.
Another WGEA report released in October supported Shanks' view and found that employers taking proactive steps - including pay equity goals, regular pay gap analysis and making leadership roles more flexible - can reduce women’s turnover and lift women’s representation in management. But the report also warned that “gender balance in leadership is still rare”.
Australia’s insurance industry is far more women-friendly than it was a decade ago - yet the data suggests the sector’s biggest equality test is what happens after the first promotion: who gets the stretch roles, who stays through the pressure years and who ultimately holds power at the top.
