The following article has been written by Anita Lane, managing director, CFC Australia
When I started my career in insurance, it was a male-dominated industry. I learned to read the room, work hard and earn my place. There were times when I moderated how I presented myself or dialled parts of myself down simply to be heard and respected.
For much of that time, I also tried very hard to be gender agnostic. I didn't want to be known as a woman in insurance. I wanted to be recognised for the quality of my work, my commitment to clients and colleagues, and what I could contribute to a business.
A lot has changed since then. Women now make up 53% of Australia's insurance workforce. We have the numbers, capability and experience, and women are shaping this industry every day. Yet fewer than 13% of C-suite roles are held by women.
So, while we've come an enormous way, I believe the conversation about women in insurance needs to evolve. Insurance is no longer a male-dominated in terms of participation. But leadership can still feel imbalanced because men continue to occupy most of the positions where some of our industry's most influential decisions are made.
Part of this comes down to career pathways. Women are strongly represented in operations, human resources, marketing, finance and compliance – functions that are fundamental to our businesses. Yet traditional pathways to senior leadership in insurance often run through underwriting, broking and distribution. This is where the revenue is generated and where women have historically been less represented. Still, career pathways are only part of the story.
Looking back, one of the biggest changes in my own thinking has been how I understand power.
As a first-generation migrant who grew up without much financial security, I knew from an early age to work harder than expected. I assumed leadership was something you eventually arrived at after you'd proven yourself and somebody decided you were ready. It took me years to understand that leadership begins much earlier than a title.
People notice how you respond to pressure, what you prioritise, the boundaries you set and how you treat others. Those everyday choices cast what I think of as a leadership shadow.
I've also come to realise that many of those choices are ultimately decisions about energy. Women frequently ask me: "How do you balance it all?". For years, I never had a satisfactory answer. Now I think the problem is the idea of balance itself.
Introducing the Four Burner Theory; Picture your life as a stovetop with four burners: career, family, relationships and health. The burners will be different for everyone, but all of us have a finite amount of heat – our time, attention, energy and emotional capacity – to distribute between them.
At different stages of my career, I've had to decide where that heat needed to go. When I co-founded Solution Underwriting (since acquired by CFC), I was also raising two very young children and supporting ageing parents. My career burner was running hot, but it couldn't be the only one requiring energy. I had to learn which burners needed to stay high and which could temporarily be lowered.
More recently, several parts of my life changed almost simultaneously. You’ve likely experienced similar seasons of change: children growing up, career paths changing, relationships fading, and even family members passing. For me,these experiences reinforced something I'd learnt over decades: you cannot sustainably have every burner turned up to maximum. That’s how you burn out.
The challenge for many women is the guilt that comes with turning one or more of their burners down. We tell ourselves we should be doing more even when we're stretched, or interpret changing priorities for specific chapters of life as a loss of ambition. I don't believe it is.
There is a season for everything. Sometimes your career needs more heat because you're learning, building or pursuing an opportunity. Sometimes your family needs it. Sometimes your health demands it, whether you planned for that or not.
The important question isn't "How do I balance everything?" It's "Where does my energy need to go right now and why?"
This is also why I created CFC's Let's Talk: Women in Insurance initiative.
The idea began in my late 40s, when I found myself navigating a stage of life I realised women rarely discussed openly with one another. It made me think more broadly about how little we sometimes know about what the women working alongside us are carrying – professionally or personally. When we don't talk about those experiences, it's very easy to assume we're the only ones struggling with them.
The response to our first Let's Talk workshop confirmed for me that women in our industry want these conversations. Attendees described the day as inclusive, impactful and needed. We are continuing that conversation through our Women in Insurance Panel and Networking events, creating another opportunity for women to learn from experienced leaders and, importantly, from each other.
I spent the early part of my career determined not to be defined as a woman in insurance. Decades later, I was incredibly honoured to be named an Insurance Business Australia Woman of Distinction. There's some irony in that, but there's also progress.
What I've come to understand is that being different from many of the people around me was never something I needed to minimise. It became one of my sources of strength.
Our industry has changed enormously during my career, and women have helped drive that change. But if we want more women influencing its future, representation alone isn't enough. We need to talk honestly about career pathways, leadership, the load women carry and the choices we make about where to direct our energy.
Because perhaps the goal was never to keep every burner blazing. It's learning that we have the power to decide where the heat goes.
If you’d like to learn more about CFC’s Let’s Talk: Women in Insurance initiative and get involved in the events, email [email protected].
