Beale in fresh swipe at Lloyd’s over its gender and diversity woes
Ex-Lloyd’s chief executive Inga Beale has recalled women working at Lloyd’s were labelled ‘box bunnies’ and ‘box bitches’ during her tenure.
Beale also launched a thinly veiled swipe at Lloyd’s over its problems in lacking women at boardroom level.
Beale, speaking at the Financial Times’s Women at the Top Conference in the London, said junior women were called ’box bitches’ and ’box bunnies’, referring to the boxlike offices that underwriters work from.
She also appeared to lament Lloyd’s going backwards on women at board level, saying: ”I changed the [Lloyd’s] executive committee to 50/50 gender balanced. All the women I hired have now left.”
Beale said there should be “40 per cent men, 40 per cent women” on boards
Women make up 38.9 per cent of non-executive directorships, but just 25 per cent at executive positions. Women make up at least a third of directorships at 48 per cent of FTSE 100 groups, according to Cranfield University data.
Lloyd’s problems kicked off in earnest following a shocking report by Bloomberg in which interviewed women revealed their stories of sexism and bullying at the insurance market.
Top politicians have labelled the reports of sexism at Lloyd’s as ‘horrific’.
Lloyd’s chief executive John Neal said he was ‘devastated’ by reports of sexual misconduct and has vowed to clean up the marketplace.
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