CAS Releases 2020 Women in The CAS Infographic
As part of the CAS Strategic Approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) adopted by the Board of Directors in September 2020, the CAS has committed to setting concrete goals and maintaining transparency and accountability on progress on our DE&I initiatives. To this end, we have built a set of detailed demographic metrics for CAS members and candidates, designed to help us understand the current state of diversity in the CAS, set goals, and track changes over time.
The 2020 Women in the CAS infographic provides an overview of representation of women among both credentialed members and CAS candidates and shows comparisons to related industries and fields. Women make up 31% of all CAS members and 35% of new members who have joined since 2010. Women make up 60% of the insurance industry and 46% of people employed in mathematics fields, suggesting more can be done to increase female representation in CAS membership. Women make up 37% of candidates taking CAS exams in 2019, compared to 41% of students conferred bachelor’s degrees in Actuarial Science in 2017-2018.
Along with members and candidates as a whole, the CAS seeks to track female representation across the CAS leadership pipeline – from committee volunteers and conference/webinar presenters to committee chairs and executive leaders. The infographic also shows the differences in women’s representation across a selection of racial/ethnic groups, suggesting that there are different factors impacting awareness, interest, and participation in the profession for these different communities.
The CAS has set goals to increase representation of female members to 45% of new members in 2026-2030 and 50% of new members in 2031-2035. CAS members are encouraged to help develop and execute initiatives to reach these goals. To get involved or stay informed, visit community.casact.org, search for Diversity Impact Group (DIG), and select JOIN. DIG is an online community for sharing information with members via email on low commitment/high impact DE&I-related volunteer opportunities as they arise.
What can members expect next? The CAS will soon be releasing similar information for key underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, and in early 2021 will be working with the Sexuality and Gender Alliance of Actuaries to better understand representation of LGBTQIA+ members and candidates.
