Few would suggest insurers are piercing the patriarchal heart of corporate Australia, but the times are nevertheless changing.

In July former Citibank VP and current QBE non-executive director Belinda Hutchinson will take the reins from retiring QBE Chairman John Cloney. Her elevation to head a company with a market capitalisation of $22 billion comes 10 years after Margaret Jackson was placed in charge of Qantas, the first female appointed chair of an ASX50 company.

Ms Hutchinson’s appointment is a breakthrough for female executives in the financial sector – and particularly insurance, which has not enjoyed a sterling reputation for gender equality.

Initiatives to reverse this impression have come and gone over the years. The creation of a “women’s forum” by former IAG CEO Michael Hawker in 2005 was once hailed as a crucial enabler for executive progression in insurance.

IAG was promptly named an employer of choice by Federal Government agency Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA).

Three years later, CEO Mike Wilkins pulled the shutters down on the forum as he focused the group on making money. IAG disappeared from EOWA’s list the following year.

Ms Hutchinson’s appointment certainly marks new ground in insurance and should be greeted with applause. Without wishing to rain on the sisterhood’s parade, it’s worth remembering her new responsibilities weren’t granted on the basis of gender but on substance.

As a past director of Telstra, Coles, Energy Australia, TAB, Crane Group, Snowy Hydro Trading and the Sydney Water Corporation, she clearly has the experience, qualifications and work ethic required for the role – regardless of gender.

As a newly minted member of Australia’s corporate high council, Ms Hutchinson is part of a tiny minority of top-flight female chairs. And she’ll be a great example to others who follow.

According to EOWA, just 3% of chairmen heading Australia’s top 200 listed businesses are women. Female CEOs account for a paltry 10.1% of the overall total, and 10.7% of ASX200 board members are women.

Recent studies by Women on Boards, a national program to encourage and assist women seeking boardroom positions, suggest the number of women on ASX200 boards could be far lower at just 8.7%.

Disparities in female board level representation aren’t contracting. If anything, they’re continue to widen. In 2006, EOWA found women comprised 12% of executive positions; two years later, it had dwindled by nearly two percentage points.

This brings us back to insurance. Does the industry suffer from an unfair reputation as the final bastion of the boys club?

The numbers seem to say it performs better than most suspect. Board level representation at Australia’s big three insurers is above the ASX200 average – depending on which study you attribute – of 8.7 to 10.7%.

Three of the nine board members at IAG and QBE are women, while they make up 15% of Suncorp’s board.

QBE could increase its female-to-male board ratio to 44% should a woman fill the vacancy left by Mr Cloney.

Insurance also fares well at the management level. An Australian Bureau of Statistics study in February 2009 found 45% of management positions in insurance were filled by women ahead of property and business (34.7%), government administration and defence (40.9%), and communications services (30.7%).

Allianz and Avant Insurance were even named as employers of choice by EOWA in 2009.

But the insurance sisterhood has a way to go before true equality is reached. Women on Boards wants 25% of Australia’s board positions filled by women by 2012. The US is ahead of Australia at 15.4% while in South Africa one in every four board members is female.

Insurers also failed to reach the finals of the outstanding business supporting women awards, run by EOWA.

Much good work has been achieved, but the battle is far from over.