“I’ve had a lot of experiences that I think are unique to women of color, and they have influenced how I manage and lead,” mentioned Washington, regional vice chairman, southeast E&S property, Arch Insurance.
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“It’s extremely important to me that there is respect among our clients, team members, and other internal or external stakeholders, even when we’re communicating tough messages, because there were times when I did not get that respect,” she advised Insurance Business.
‘Everybody wants to be valued’
For Washington, her experiences within the insurance coverage trade have solely deepened her empathy for others.
“I can remember one situation years ago, when I was excited about a new position and kept going back to my manager asking when I’d get promoted,” she mentioned.
The supervisor suggested her to earn numerous insurance coverage certifications, together with an Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) and Chartered Property and Casualty (CPCU) designation, which Washington did. But finally, he went on to disclose his actual opinion on Washington’s profession prospects.
“I think he got tired of telling me to do things that he didn’t expect me to do. But then he said to me, ‘Listen, I just don’t see you going anywhere in this company as an African American woman’. And that had a huge impact on me.”
Looking again, Washington mentioned it was these moments which have helped her change into a greater chief.
“It makes me aware that everybody wants to feel valued for who they are, no matter their race, religion or sexual orientation. It also helped me to understand how [discrimination] affect team dynamics, success, and engagement,” she mentioned.
“If you’re not being valued for who you are, then you don’t bring your full self to the table. Everybody just wants to be recognized for what they bring to the table.”
Washington is without doubt one of the audio system at subsequent month’s Women in Insurance Summit in Atlanta. Her panel will sort out the significance of intersectionality in insurance coverage organizations, and the way the comparatively new idea can improve variety, fairness, and inclusion (DE&I) frameworks.
How can intersectionality have an effect on DE&I methods?
First coined by American civil rights advocate Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality acknowledges that completely different methods of inequality based mostly on gender, race, sexual orientation, incapacity, ethnicity, and sophistication can mix to create distinctive experiences for people.
Simply put, it acknowledges that there are completely different dimensions to discrimination, and that every one types of inequality reinforce can reinforce one another.
How can this precept speed up work in the direction of extra numerous and inclusive organizations? According to the Center for Intersectional Justice, an intersectional strategy doesn’t imply preventing all types of discrimination without delay; fairly, it ensures that nobody is left behind and that completely different teams can obtain equality collectively, and never the expense of 1 different.
In apply, meaning insurance policies tackling the gender pay hole should additionally deal with the hole between what white ladies and ladies of shade earn, for instance.
Insurance leaders can higher see the completely different layers of inequality after they do the work of confronting and correcting their biases, mentioned Washington.
“Everybody has biases for different things. But I think it’s important because if you lack of awareness around your own biases, you don’t have the opportunity to change anything,” the Arch government mentioned. “I think that’s step number one.”
Step two is giving extra alternatives to individuals who have historically confronted discrimination. But this is able to be more difficult to do in an equitable approach with out acknowledging intersectionality.
“Being able to evaluate people in their own merits is important. But if you’re not aware of your biases, you won’t be able to do that,” Washington mentioned.
The Women in Insurance Atlanta summit goals to convey ladies and allies collectively to sort out essentially the most urgent points in insurance coverage. Register for the in-person convention on March 2, 2023.