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25th September 2015
Bias busting: equality and opportunity
On 15 July, Kathryn Morgan, director at the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, gave the first Monica Allanach lecture. Allanach was one of the first women to qualify as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, in 1951. The occasion was used to celebrate her achievement, observe how the profession's membership has changed, and to ask whether it has further to go to address gender diversity.
Currently, 40% of those joining the profession in the UK are women, about the same proportion in recent cohorts of maths graduates, and 40% of those completing actuarial exams are women. Morgan asked whether we should seek to understand why the intake is not 50-50. She also reflected on the low rate of senior women actuaries, and offered tips to help both men and women consider how to make the most of their careers.
Some audience members wondered whether there was evidence that having more women in senior positions results in better outcomes for an organisation. There is certainly no evidence that senior women adversely affect results. Even so, diversity groups are often asked to make business cases for providing skilled and talented women with career advancement opportunities, while similar cases are not needed to promote men.
It was suggested that men and women were naturally suited for different roles. Of course, there will always be differences, but these should be owing to an individual's unfettered choices, rather than socially constructed prejudice.
Research was quoted where an orchestra, having previously recruited mainly male musicians - arguing that their musicianship was different from women's - tried 'blind' auditions. The proportion of female new hires increased from 10% to 45%, illustrating how people who think there is a genuine distinction between different groups of people may just be expressing an unconscious bias.
The issue of flexible working allowing women to balance work and family responsibilities was raised. Men have families too, and, increasingly, are taking advantage of this flexibility. The equality challenge is not only about opportunities for women but also about men balancing their workloads so family responsibilities are not left largely to their partners.
It was suggested by another audience member that the low number of senior women could be a cohort effect. I am a 'senior' woman. I first applied for jobs as an actuarial trainee in my third year as a post-graduate student. One consultancy said I was too old for them to interview; at another interview there were pictures of scantily clad women on the walls.
Things have changed, but not entirely. More recently, a young woman with work experience wasn't invited for an interview on graduation. Her lecturer asked why, since similarly experienced and qualified men were invited. She was told there was no point in interviewing women because they have children. I have children, and I have worked full time since leaving university. When I was interviewed for my current job in 2000, Mercer was the only firm not to ask me how I was going to cope working full time.
According to research carried out in 2014, businesses tend to view women with children as liable to be distracted and to skimp work, whereas men with children are viewed as stable and committed. So it is no surprise to me that women leave the profession on average far sooner than men. It is not their biology that leads to this. The women who leave are no less able or motivated than their male colleagues, but they lack role models and are denied opportunities.
Allanach and her female peers were remarkable in their achievements. It is shameful that serious people still consider it reasonable to debate whether people should be given equal opportunities, and that a business case is needed before women can be given the same as their male counterparts. Allanach didn't expect special treatment, but Morgan asked whether positive discrimination or quotas could help speed progress.
No woman wants to feel she has been appointed to a job just because she is female, although men have enjoyed the equivalent privilege for years. Unfortunately, behaviours reinforced over many centuries seem unlikely to change overnight. It is not enough just to lead this horse to the water trough: some positive action is needed to make it drink.
Currently, 40% of those joining the profession in the UK are women, about the same proportion in recent cohorts of maths graduates, and 40% of those completing actuarial exams are women. Morgan asked whether we should seek to understand why the intake is not 50-50. She also reflected on the low rate of senior women actuaries, and offered tips to help both men and women consider how to make the most of their careers.
Some audience members wondered whether there was evidence that having more women in senior positions results in better outcomes for an organisation. There is certainly no evidence that senior women adversely affect results. Even so, diversity groups are often asked to make business cases for providing skilled and talented women with career advancement opportunities, while similar cases are not needed to promote men.
It was suggested that men and women were naturally suited for different roles. Of course, there will always be differences, but these should be owing to an individual's unfettered choices, rather than socially constructed prejudice.
Research was quoted where an orchestra, having previously recruited mainly male musicians - arguing that their musicianship was different from women's - tried 'blind' auditions. The proportion of female new hires increased from 10% to 45%, illustrating how people who think there is a genuine distinction between different groups of people may just be expressing an unconscious bias.
The issue of flexible working allowing women to balance work and family responsibilities was raised. Men have families too, and, increasingly, are taking advantage of this flexibility. The equality challenge is not only about opportunities for women but also about men balancing their workloads so family responsibilities are not left largely to their partners.
It was suggested by another audience member that the low number of senior women could be a cohort effect. I am a 'senior' woman. I first applied for jobs as an actuarial trainee in my third year as a post-graduate student. One consultancy said I was too old for them to interview; at another interview there were pictures of scantily clad women on the walls.
Things have changed, but not entirely. More recently, a young woman with work experience wasn't invited for an interview on graduation. Her lecturer asked why, since similarly experienced and qualified men were invited. She was told there was no point in interviewing women because they have children. I have children, and I have worked full time since leaving university. When I was interviewed for my current job in 2000, Mercer was the only firm not to ask me how I was going to cope working full time.
According to research carried out in 2014, businesses tend to view women with children as liable to be distracted and to skimp work, whereas men with children are viewed as stable and committed. So it is no surprise to me that women leave the profession on average far sooner than men. It is not their biology that leads to this. The women who leave are no less able or motivated than their male colleagues, but they lack role models and are denied opportunities.
Allanach and her female peers were remarkable in their achievements. It is shameful that serious people still consider it reasonable to debate whether people should be given equal opportunities, and that a business case is needed before women can be given the same as their male counterparts. Allanach didn't expect special treatment, but Morgan asked whether positive discrimination or quotas could help speed progress.
No woman wants to feel she has been appointed to a job just because she is female, although men have enjoyed the equivalent privilege for years. Unfortunately, behaviours reinforced over many centuries seem unlikely to change overnight. It is not enough just to lead this horse to the water trough: some positive action is needed to make it drink.
Deborah Cooper is risk and professionalism leader at Mercer
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