SEX DISCRIMINATION AND PRIVATE INSURANCE: should sex differences make a difference?

This paper argues that UK insurance companies should abandon their policy of charging differential premiums and offering differential benefits to women and men on the basis of gender specific morbidity and mortality tables. The 1975 Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) permits such practices, although subsequent legal judgments, particularly in the European Court, have challenged aspects of them. However, the spirit of the SDA, as of recent European community legislation, is to outlaw unequal treatment which arguably reflects unfair, culturally-based or outdated stereotypes about the capabilities and the needs of either sex. First, this paper considers the contemporary legal and statutory context, as regards differential treatment of women and men, in which the British insurance companies operate. Secondly, it discusses certain conflicting views as to whether such differentiation is either 'fair' to the insured or commercially necessary for the continued viability of the insurance industry, drawing on the debates in this country and the United States. The paper concludes with some suggestions as to how changes might be introduced, on a legislative or voluntary basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]