The executive boards of German insurers are becoming more diverse. Over the past two years, the number of female board members has increased significantly, especially among the top ten companies in the industry. The ten largest German insurers recently expanded the proportion of women in their top leadership bodies, averaging 27%, according to a survey by Börsen-Zeitung. Allianz leads the way, achieving almost parity in its board composition since the beginning of the year. Following the appointment of Claire-Marie Coste-Lepoutre as the new CFO, 44% of the members in the board of the largest European insurer are now female. The Munich-based company also holds a leading position in the Dax, with no other major publicly traded company in Germany having four women on its board.

The noticeable correlation with the law for more women in leadership positions (FüPoG II), which came into effect in August 2021, is striking: While progress had been slow – in 2019 the percentage of female executives in the insurance industry had even slightly decreased compared to previous years –, the number of top female managers in the insurance sector has increased significantly since then. At the end of 2020, three of the ten largest corporate boards were exclusively male. This is no longer the case in the top ten today. Almost all companies have two or more women on their boards, with only Ergo and Talanx having the lowest representation, each having only one female board member. The significant increase indicates the broad impact of the law, which currently applies only to the four German insurers in the Dax and MDax.

The data from the industry employers' association AGV also indicate a continuous upward trend. Diversity is increasing, but the insurance industry is still far from the end of male-dominated top positions. While nearly half of all employees in insurance are women, their representation at the first leadership level was only 22% in 2022. Five years earlier, it was 15%. On all leadership levels, the proportion was 31% most recently. However, this calculation excludes the still predominantly male-dominated field work. It is also noteworthy that there are no women in top leadership positions in large financial sales companies such as MLP and OVB.

The typical female executive in the top ten of the German insurance industry is around 50 years old, holds a degree in business or mathematics, and is responsible for operational insurance business or risk management/actuarial services. Of the 22 women at the top of the ten largest German insurers, three are under 40 years old, and just under a third have a non-German nationality.

However, very few women in the German insurance industry make it to the top: The number of female CEOs is extremely low. In the small Kiel Rück, Monika Köstlin and Regina Buer lead the company as a female duo, with Köstlin as CEO and Buer as chair of the supervisory board. Claudia Tuchscherer has been leading ADAC Versicherung since early 2022.

It is also a fact that while large groups are leading the way, diversifying their executive boards not only with more women but often also with an international focus, medium-sized and smaller insurers often lag behind. In more than a handful of insurers among the 30 largest German providers, a male stronghold still persists. Exclusively male-occupied group or corporate boards still exist at Continentale, SV Sparkassen Versicherung, VHV, Hanse Merkur, LVM, Inter, and WWK.

Many mutual insurance associations are among those resisting diversity. This issue is particularly prevalent in Geramyn. A study by the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) estimated the percentage of women in the boards of its member companies worldwide at around 33% a year ago. Interestingly, hardly any German insurance association reaches 20%.

It's not surprising that women are poorly represented in the boards of public insurers. This is also the case among their sponsors, the savings banks. While Versicherungskammer Bayern, as the largest group in the public insurance sector, has at least two female board members, Provinzial Holding and VGH Versicherungen each have only one, representing a share below 20%. At SV Sparkassen Versicherung, men still dominate.