International Women’s Day Q&A: MetLife China CEO Siyi Sun

March 8 2021 by

To mark International Women’s Day, InsuranceAsia News (IAN) is bringing our readers an exclusive interview with Siyi Sun, MetLife China CEO, where she discusses how the insurance industry is tackling the issue of gender equality across Asia.

Celebrated each year on March 8, this global event focuses on the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women while raising awareness and lobbying for equality and gender parity.

Sun highlighted how women are disproportionately shouldering the burden of domestic responsibilities during the Covid-19 pandemic while also explaining how gender fits into the broader ESG discussion among insurers.

IAN: What is the current state of gender equality in the Asia insurance industry?

Sun: In general, more women are working in Asia. However, the trend varies significantly across markets. According to a report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2015, women in Asia are on average 70% less likely than men to be in the labour force, with the country-to-country percentage varying anywhere from 3% less likely to 80%. Eastern Asia performs the best in terms of female workforce participation (at 65%), while Southeast Asia and Southern Asia were at 58% and 30% respectively. Although detailed statistics are not published for the insurance sector, it is likely to generally mirror this situation across the region.

IAN: What challenges do women still face in the industry and how has MetLife supported female professionals to overcome them?

Sun: Regardless of sector, women still face challenges in achieving equity – and the pandemic hasn’t helped. Women have been disproportionately shouldering the burden of unpaid care and domestic responsibilities and are exiting the workforce at far greater rates than men. Those that have stayed in the workforce during the pandemic have come up against networking and visibility challenges (due to increased remote working) and less promotion opportunities as companies deal with the economic fallout. While none of these are unique to our industry, they are factors we all need to consider if we are to achieve equity in our industry.

At MetLife, we focus on equity which we believe provides greater outcomes than equality alone. For us equity is ensuring that everyone has what they need to be successful. This allows us to tend to the diverse needs of our workforce. Therefore, we take a data-driven approach to closing gaps and addressing cultural and structural barriers of the most underrepresented populations at MetLife. With our Gender Equity Initiative, we are focused on advancing women across all leadership levels through targeted developmental opportunities and access; building leadership ownership and accountability to drive change across our markets; and assessing our systems and processes to ensure we minimize barriers.

In March 2020, MetLife became the first U.S.-based insurer to sign the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). So far, 37 markets where we have operations have completed the WEPs Gender Gaps Analysis, including our major markets in Asia. The findings give us both a customized and systemic perspective by assessing our progress in the areas of leadership, workplace, marketplace and community. In response, a cross-market gender equity working group was formed, charged with creating time-bound action plans aimed at closing gender gaps and building a workplace that works for everyone. We also offer “Inclusion Begins with Me,” a global comprehensive program, outlining the behaviours and actions of an inclusive culture and how each employee has a role to play in building this culture. These actions ensure our behaviours and decisions contribute to an inclusive environment that promotes gender equity across the organization.

Many of our offices in Asia have adopted a flexible working model that with the use of technology gave employees – for example our customer service agents – more options as to where they work to enjoy a better balance between work and families. In addition, we focus on developing a diverse leadership pipeline. In Asia, we are going to launch Aspire to Lead, a career development program designed to accelerate the development and advancement of women managers.

IAN: Why does gender equality matter in terms of the solutions insurers provide their customers, perhaps especially in developing nations across Asia?

Sun: As a deeply customer-focused company, our first instinct is always to listen to our customers to understand and address their unmet needs. With more women entering and advancing in the workforce, we need to make sure we’re there to support their evolving savings and protection needs. For example, in Nepal we have developed Lifecare Beautiful, an insurance solution especially geared towards financially protecting women from the nine or so serious illnesses that most commonly afflict them. Financial health is another way MetLife is seeking to tackle gender inequity and we work with a number of community partners across Asia to offer financial education programs recognizing unique challenges women face in improving their financial health.

IAN: How does gender equality fit into the broader ESG trend that is now dominating the conversation across the industry?

Sun: 2020 was unprecedented in terms of the challenges it has placed on societies across the region. There has also been an increased focus on ‘Social’ and ‘Governance’ – issues like racial and gender equality, female leadership, board diversity, alongside the continued importance of ‘Environment’. Different markets in the region have different priorities, but the trend will remain in 2021 and beyond. Here at MetLife, we have taken actions, mainly through the MetLife Foundation, to address these themes as a response to our ESG commitment to the wider community. We focus on a number of areas related to gender equality, including:

Supporting girl child education: Since 2017, the MetLife Foundation has been supporting RoomtoRead’s Girl Child Education Program across several Asia markets to ensure that girls can complete secondary school and have the skills to negotiate key life decisions.

Enhancing financial health through digital transformation: In Bangladesh, the MetLife Foundation has worked with leading microfinance organizations to offer more than 500,000 women with a wider range of targeted, affordable and conveniently delivered financial services through digital and physical channels.

Helping ultra-poor women: The MetLife Foundation supported Trickle Up to work with ultra-poor households in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam. The project has helped more than 50,000 ultra-poor women and their families to climb out of extreme poverty.

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