Skip to main content
The Actuary: The magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - return to the homepage Logo of The Actuary website
  • Search
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Logo of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Main navigation

  • News
  • Features
    • General Features
    • Interviews
    • Students
    • Opinion
  • Topics
  • Knowledge
    • Business Skills
    • Careers
    • Events
    • Predictions by The Actuary
    • Whitepapers
    • Moody's - Climate Risk Insurers series
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
  • Jobs
  • IFoA
    • CEO Comment
    • IFoA News
    • People & Social News
    • President Comment
  • Archive
Quick links:
  • Home
  • The Actuary Issues
  • April 2019
04

Letters: Damsels in distress approach is not helpful

Open-access content Friday 5th April 2019 — updated 5.50pm, Wednesday 29th April 2020

Letter from Lee Faulkner FIA.

The article A seat at the table in the March issue made some very interesting and valid points. I fully support the notion that cognitive diversity is the key to preventing groupthink, particularly as I've often felt like a bit of an impostor in my own profession. I do have a problem, though, with two of the issues mentioned in the article. Both are, perhaps, well-intentioned but are patronising to women. One high-profile female actuary I talked to about this thought they were examples of "damsel in distress" syndrome. 

The first, gender quotas and gender-specific recruitment practices as "quick fixes to the [gender] imbalance", should now be well past their sell-by date (as well as potentially being illegal). The biggest way to reinforce someone's feeling that "they shouldn't really be there" is if they feel they're only there because of a quota rather than because they're any good. Quotas are a way of creating an even bigger "impostor syndrome" for women actuaries, and do nothing for the "inclusion" part of "diversity and inclusion". 

Secondly, sponsors: The example of the sponsor role given was obviously "man helps women". The article didn't say that sponsors necessarily always had to be men helping women, but that's certainly what it implied and/or what most people would have inferred. There definitely is a need for mentors and sponsors in corporate life, and in our profession, but surely that must be to nurture talent and not because 'behind every successful women there's a man'?

On a possibly more flippant but nevertheless instructive note, I am always stunned by how the behaviour of men and the comparable behaviour of women are judged so differently. If a man goes on a business trip, gets drunk and has a fling, then he might get a few 'tut-tuts' but would largely be excused "because that's what blokes do". Now think of the reaction a woman would get if she did the same thing? I rest my case.

The article makes the point that "fixing inequality starts in the home", and maybe it does, but it also needs a good heave by looking at the way each of us judges the abilities, talents and behaviours of one another.

Lee Faulkner FIA

22 March 2019

This article appeared in our April 2019 issue of The Actuary .
Click here to view this issue

You may also be interested in...

ta

Letters: Too many risks

Letter from Charles Cowling.
Friday 5th April 2019
Open-access content
ta

Letters: Climate control

Letter from Louise Pryor and Simon Jones, Chair and Deputy Chair of the Resource and Environment board.
Friday 5th April 2019
Open-access content
2

Living for longer

Global long-term longevity extension trends are well known to both actuaries and non-actuaries. These trends are developing slowly in most parts of the world, but could that pace change?
Friday 5th April 2019
Open-access content
p33_book

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

Chris Paterson's review of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth.
Friday 5th April 2019
Open-access content
2

Actuary of the future: Vanessa Chinhengo

On the record with Vanessa Chinhengo, student and actuary of the future
Monday 8th April 2019
Open-access content
2

Student page: Steering the ship

Being put in charge of a project can feel daunting; Jason Brett offers tips for keeping on top of things.
Monday 8th April 2019
Open-access content
Filed in
04
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Senior Reserving Analyst

London (City of)
Negotiable
Reference
149485

Senior GI Modeler - Capital and Planning

London (Central)
£ excellent
Reference
149436

Risk Oversight Manager

Flexible / hybrid with a minimum of 2 days per week office-based
£ excellent
Reference
149435
See all jobs »
 
 

Today's top reads

 
 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to The Actuary

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
Spread-iPad-slantB-june.png

Topics

  • Data Science
  • Investment
  • Risk & ERM
  • Pensions
  • Environment
  • Soft skills
  • General Insurance
  • Regulation Standards
  • Health care
  • Technology
  • Reinsurance
  • Global
  • Life insurance
​
FOLLOW US
The Actuary on LinkedIn
@TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Facebook: The Actuary Magazine
CONTACT US
The Actuary
Tel: (+44) 020 7880 6200
​

IFoA

About IFoA
Become an actuary
IFoA Events
About membership

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to The Actuary Magazine
Contribute

The Actuary Jobs

Actuarial job search
Pensions jobs
General insurance jobs
Solvency II jobs

© 2023 The Actuary. The Actuary is published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries by Redactive Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ