In times of crisis, women also roll up their sleeves and take steps to manage the financial assets of the family. In dealing with insurance and investments, the risk propensity of the fair sex rose from 29,9% in 2008 to 59,9% in 2012 and more than 50% decide their investments together with their partner. The majority of Italian women also declare themselves capable of managing an individual company (60,4% of cases against 43% recorded in 2008). The data on the cultural change of women in our country comes from a research by Episteme by Monica Fabris, commissioned by Ania and the Axa Group who presented it yesterday at the Italian AXA Forum.
In short, Italian women are increasingly independent in their financial choices. And in this context, the new law on women's quotas for listed and public companies, approved in mid-August, seems to follow a path towards greater female weight at the top of companies, and beyond. In fact, the issue of "gender" also poses important challenges in the insurance sector. In terms of customer perception, of regulation - from the law on women's quotas to the gender directive which will lead to unisex tariffs by the end of the year with disruptive effects for the market -, of the challenge among the operators themselves in enhancing gender diversity within them , in top positions and on boards.
"It is clear that choices must be made on the merits - declared the managing director of Axa Mps, Frédéric de Courtois - but in order to address gender diversity in the world of work, I believe there is a need to set targets and measure results. In the insurance world there is not a problem of female access, but rather of career progression”. According to industry data, in insurance, the ratio for executive positions is 1 woman in 4 men and female executives represent only 12%.
