Mrs. Cynthia Kwarteng Tufuor, Tema Regional Manager of the SIC Insurance Company PLC has revealed that the company has created a a congenial atmosphere that attract women to work there comfortably.
As a result, she said they had integrated about 60 per cent of their workforce made up of women as the insurance industry, needed qualities of women as they had good listening skills, with the ability to easily create relationships, with persuasive skills.
“Due to the natural qualities of women, they often ventured into the insurance industry as the work involve marketing and convincing clients to roll onto existing schemes,” she noted and encouraged women to explore employment opportunities within the insurance industry.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Tema on the prospects of women in the insurance industry, she said it was about time that conscious efforts were made by women to push themselves into corporate leadership by upgrading their knowledge and skills in whatever profession they found themselves.
She stressed that a well-educated woman that possessed all the required skills, knowledge, confidence, and ability to excel could grab leadership opportunities anytime, anywhere.
Mrs. Tufuor said “women who are empowered with the knowledge and skills will be more productive and well-honoured at whatever working field they find themselves, if women can uphold their skills, they could rise to the occasion when they are called upon.”
According to her women in SIC resolved to acquire the necessary education and skills when they realized that fewer women were in leadership, “currently women are climbing the leadership ladder”.
Women’s participation in leadership roles, Mrs Tufuor noted helped in the advancement of gender equality and affected both the range and quality of policies formulated for the betterment of society.
She urged women to support and encourage each other and serve as mentors for the younger ones to aim high, adding that because of lack of mentorship, most women veered off their chosen careers to others.
Mrs. Tufuor said if women who have gone through the process of reaching the top could carry others along, most fields of professions would have a good number of women in leadership in the next five years and beyond.
She encouraged mothers, married women, and young girls who might have gotten pregnant in their teenage years not to use that as an excuse not to excel, stressing that “pregnancy is not an excuse, you still make it.”