In October and November, a number of young women gathered in London and Edinburgh for the IFoAs first Count Us In events educational forums centred on helping girls better understand career opportunities in STEM, and especially the actuarial field.
In October and November, a number of young women gathered in London and Edinburgh for the IFoA's first 'Count Us In' events - educational forums centred on helping girls better understand career opportunities in STEM, and especially the actuarial field. This year, the celebration of International Women's Day encourages us to #BalanceforBetter as we move toward a more gender-balanced world. With women making up 35% of the IFoA's total membership, there undoubtedly is room for these female students to explore actuarial science as a course of study - and as their eventual profession of choice.
The good news: they have strong role models blazing the trail. Three of the IFoA's nine presidents have been female, and many more women now serve on Council and on our Corporate and Practice Boards than was the case in the past. Half of our staff leadership team is female. This is good news for us, too. Research shows that organisations with more female leaders tend to perform better financially - and the more women a team contains, the greater its level of collective intelligence. Beyond gender equality and inclusion simply being the right thing to do, the #BalanceforBetter serves all of us better in the long run.
As we continue our work to serve you - our members - to the very best of our ability, we also continue our efforts to ensure that the actuarial profession is one that welcomes and values individuals from all walks of life. This International Women's Day, and every day, we strive to #BalanceforBetter.
Derek Cribb is the chief executive of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries