Women need to push harder against the glass ceiling

In an ever-changing workplace, the insurance industry in Canada has made great strides to see increased diversity and inclusion. The past decade has seen a number of female leaders take the helm at some of Canada’s top insurance firms - a few current examples being Lynn Oldfield, president and CEO at AIG Canada, and Heather Masterson, president and CEO at Travelers Canada. At one point in the past decade, there were female chief executives at five of the top 10 insurance brands in Canada, shining the spotlight on Canadian insurers as a progressive bunch – but the industry cannot stop there. It’s time to build on that progress and pump that same energy and enthusiasm into the entire female talent pipeline, according to Denise Yeng, sales and distribution manager (national) at Cansure. Yeng, who will be speaking at Insurance Business Canada’s upcoming Women in Insurance Toronto conference, said it’s almost as if “there’s a perceived expectation that the industry must have so many female leaders,” and once that quota is reached, nothing more needs to be done.