Women in insurance do not always have equal access to roles that “lead directly to power”, CFC Underwriting MD Anita Lane says.

At a CFC Let’s Talk workshop in Melbourne this week, Ms Lane (pictured) noted women make up 53% of the insurance workforce in Australia – yet they hold only about 13% of C-suite roles.

 

 

“We need to change our narrative,” she said. “We’re no longer in a male-dominated industry. However, we feel like men continue to direct the future of our industry because they are the majority with a seat at the boardroom.”

Women often occupy “backbone” operational roles and jobs in marketing, finance, compliance and human resources. But the most common path to senior leadership tends to be underwriting, broking or distribution.

“That’s not where the majority of women have historically been placed, so we end up with less representation at the top,” Ms Lane told the gathering of “vibrant, like-minded insurance women”.

She said she put in “years of hard work and navigating an industry that – when I first entered it – was absolutely male-dominated. There were times where I had to dial parts of myself down just to be heard and respected and learn how to work within this system.”

In hindsight, “the way I looked, spoke, showed up was actually a source of power for me – I was different from all the men in the room”.

Ms Lane is a first‑generation Australian with South American heritage who grew up in “commission housing with little security and safety, and English wasn’t always easy.

“You learn early in that position to work harder than expected, read a room, navigate challenges. To earn your place, rather than assume it.”

When she was younger, she “tried very hard to be gender agnostic” and “wanted to be ‘just Anita’, not a woman in insurance. I wanted to be recognised by the competency of my work, my commitment, my passion and dedication.”

Today, she believes people lead in “how you show up, what you prioritise, what life choices you make, what boundaries you set. This is where power actually starts. Not with a title, age, permission.”

She likened life to a stovetop with four burners: family, career, relationships and health, and said: “Power is how you direct your energy.

“In those early days of founding a business and being a mother, I decided which burners I would keep high and which I had to sacrifice … I had that control and, all of a sudden, the guilt subsided.

“You can’t sustainably have every burner on high at the same time, as this will lead to burnout.”