Women in Leadership

Mission Statement 
The mission of the IASA Women in Leadership (WIL) Committee would be to educate, encourage, and mentor females in the insurance industry to become leaders within IASA and in the industry. The Women in Leadership Committee is a subcommittee of the D&I Committee. 

March is Women's History Month!

Throughout the month of March, IASA’s Women in Leadership (WIL) Committee will highlight helpful articles and other professional resources to support women in the insurance industry, in recognition of Women’s History Month.

Did you know that in 2020, there were over 2 million women employed in the insurance sector?  Women account for roughly 65% of the 3 million workers in the insurance industry.  This statistic has remained relatively static over the past 10 years. In 2011 women represented roughly 66% or 1.5 million of the 2.3 million employed in the insurance sector.  What is interesting about this is while women represent more than ½ of the insurance work force, women’s representation within the executive or C-suite levels in the insurance industry is estimated at only 30% as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The IASA recognizes the importance of these statistics and is committed to focusing in the area of Women in Leadership within the Insurance Industry. 

Launched in November 2020, the WIL Committee’s mission is to educate, encourage, and mentor females in the insurance industry to become leaders within IASA and in the industry.  In recognition of March being Women’s History Month, the IASA’s Women in Leadership (WIL) Committee will highlight helpful articles and other professional resources to support, encourage, and inspire women in the insurance industry.  

In the short time since its inception, the WIL Committee has partnered with IASA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee to develop a survey that will provide strategic focus for both groups’ in 2021 and beyond.  The survey is currently open and available through Friday, March 26th. If you have not already done so, please take the survey and forward it to your colleagues, as well.  
 
Take the survey here

“Supporting women throughout their career in the insurance industry is something I am passionate about and I am so excited to lead IASA’s efforts to provide education and resources to encourage both current and future women leaders. I am looking forward to building a platform & community among my insurance industry colleagues to educate and inspire women!”  Kristine Weber


Want to support IASA’s Women in Leadership Committee Activities? Here are a 5 easy actions you can take to support us! 

1. Take and share our survey . It is important that we hear from as many insurance professionals as possible so that we can develop tools and resources to support our industry. 
2. Visit this page often and learn more about our group. We will be adding relevant tools and resources on a monthly basis. 
3. Like and share our social media posts. Are you on LinkedIn or Facebook? If so, an easy way to support our efforts is to like and repost our social media content.  
4. Share your feedback.  Do you have articles you want to share with other women in the insurance industry? Forward them to kbohannon@iasa.org and we will consider adding them to our webpage.
5. Submit ideas for educational sessions.  Consider submitting proposals for the IASA Xchange Annual Conference – August 29-September 1, 2021 in New Orleans! 

For questions about the WIL Committee, please contact staff at kbohannon@iasa.org. 

We Want to Hear from You!  Take the Survey!
To meet the evolving insurance industry's workforce needs, a thorough understanding of factors affecting women and diverse professionals is required. IASA’s Women in Leadership and Diversity and Inclusion Committees have partnered to design a survey.  It examines the association between factors, including ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation, personal and professional satisfaction and challenges/ barriers. The results from this survey will be used to develop education and professional resources to support a more inclusive insurance workforce. The survey will be open from Feb. 1st – Feb. 19th and responses will be kept confidential. 
The survey will be open from Feb. 1st – March 26th and responses will be kept confidential.
Survey link: IASA Diversity_Women in Leadership Survey 2021   For questions, please contact IASA at Membership@iasa.org. 

Women in Leadership Related Articles & Other Resources
Forbes 1.6.21 - Women Are Quitting: What We Can Do To Curb The ‘She-Cession’  

Want to Connect with Other Professional Women in the Industry? Visit and Connect with These LinkedIn Groups.

Women in Insurance https://www.linkedin.com/groups/71296/

Women in Numbers https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1103477/

National Association of Insurance Women https://www.linkedin.com/groups/881967/

Women in Insurtech https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13671350/

Video Resources
Ted Talk - Body Positivity or Body Obsession? Learning to See More & Be More | Lindsay Kite | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDowwh0EU4w

About the Chair  Kristine Weber | Senior Vice President – Accounting & Claims Manager |BMS Re
Kristine currently manages the team of Accounting & Claims analysts on day-to-day client activities as part of the Client Reinsurance Operations group at BMS. Kristine works on all insurance lines of business including workers’ compensation & property/casualty and has a focus in handling specialty casualty business including professional liability and medical malpractice accounts. She has been involved in many IT related initiatives including system implementation & conversion projects as well as developing system metric & reporting solutions.   


Upcoming Activities for Women in Leadership Committee  

Committee Member Roster

For more information about this committee or if you have questions, please contact Kelli Bohannon at kbohannon@iasa.org .