A London-founded networking group is seeking to shine a spotlight on women in insurance with a new international awards program, as the sector continues to grapple with persistent gender disparities in pay and leadership.
ISC Group, which counts more than 10,000 members and 100 corporate partners across six countries, has unveiled the Women's Excellence Awards 2026, an 18-category program recognizing individuals and organizations driving gender balance in insurance and financial services.
A conference and black-tie ceremony are planned for September.
The program spans nine individual and nine organizational categories, covering leadership, mentorship, career re-entry, parental leave policies, wellbeing, and intergenerational collaboration.
Among the honors is the Schonhofer Award, named after ISC Group founder Barbara Schonhofer MBE, and the Career Returner Excellence Award for women who have re-entered or pivoted within the industry.
The initiative arrives against a backdrop of stubbornly wide gender gaps. The World Economic Forum's 2025 Global Gender Gap Report found that women in top management globally rose from 25.7% to 28.1% between 2015 and 2024, but that momentum has stalled since 2022. Women were also 55.2% more likely than men to take career breaks, the report noted.
Read more: Driving gender balance in insurance
In the UK, the gender pay gap in financial and insurance activities stands at 22.3% in favor of men, CIPHR data shows. Payscale research paints a similar picture in the United States, where women in finance and insurance earn roughly $0.78 for every dollar men earn.
McKinsey research has separately found that women across industries are 21% less likely to be promoted.
ISC Group traces its roots to 2003, when Schonhofer launched what was then the Insurance Supper Club with just 12 members in London.
The group was formalized as a Community Interest Company in 2008 and has since expanded into the US, Canada, Bermuda, Ireland, and Switzerland.
Schonhofer has previously recalled that when ISC began, there were roughly 12 visible senior women in the London market – and that from a database of about 35,000 industry names, only 60 were women.
Carmen Powell, ISC Group's chief executive, said the Women's Excellence Awards aim to recognize women in insurance in leadership, highlight emerging talent, and acknowledge businesses fostering balanced workplace cultures.
"We want to inspire the next generation, strengthen collaboration across the sector, and continue driving meaningful progress for women in insurance worldwide," Powell said.
