Last Spring, we made the decision to stop using titles in our written communications with all our customers. We deem the use of honorifics and titles, to distinguish between married/unmarried women, but not men, to be outmoded and discriminatory. Titles can often set people up against each other as they imply some as worthier than others. At the ETA, we will only ever ask for the information that is relevant to setting up your policy.
Here at the ETA, women make up 50% of the board, 60% of the executive team and the pay is 0% lower than our male counterparts. From the company’s inception, fair maternity and paternity leave has been available for all, long before the government made it mandatory.
Gender equality has always been the norm for us, and we are proud to be part of the ever-improving move towards equality. After all, we are considered Britain’s most ethical insurance company. The Good Shopping Guide each year reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly of the world’s companies and brands, with a view to supporting the growth of social responsibility and ethical business as well as a more sustainable, just society.
Beating household-name insurance companies such as John Lewis and the Co-op, we have an ethical company index score of 89 – earning us joint-first place with Naturesave.
According to The Good Shopping Guide: “There are some insurers who can be regarded as ‘ethical specialists’. The ETA aims to bring about positive changes in Britain’s travel habits by raising awareness about the impact of excessive car use. It provides travel and bicycle insurance as well as breakdown cover for cars and mobility scooters. See eta.co.uk for further details.”
Your Journey. Our World
The ETA was established in 1990 as an ethical provider of green, reliable travel services. Twenty-eight years on, we continue to offer home insurance, cycle insurance, travel insurance and breakdown cover while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.
Tony Williams
“Titles can often set people up against each other as they imply some as worthier than others.”
You may be serious, but don’t expect to be taken seriously.
Rowan Adams
Titles are serious. They discriminate between people. ETA are right to take them seriously and get rid of them. Somebody’s gender and marital status should not be included as part of their name.
Howard Cheesman
Nice one ETA you are leading the way. Actually Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) have been advocating and dispensing with any form of honorific since the 1650’s.
Derek Hitchcock
Terrific! I’ve never understood the persistence of titles that insist on knowing the marital status of women.
Tony Williams
Well it’s certainly fashionable to suppose that titles “discriminate between people” – so what? – but the idea that “somebody’s gender and marital status should not be included as part of their name” would require everyone to use only their initials in a place like this, or to adopt something weird that wasn’t really a name, in order to disguise themselves. .
Colin Muddiman
I certainly support the un-use of titles! So often titles are obligatory in online forms when they are entirely unnecessary. Surely the Miss/Mrs distinction in particular should be consigned to history! (or perhaps we should re-introduce ‘Master’!!)
Perhaps more importantly, I am delighted to see the gender statistics. There are complexities surrounding this issue of course, but, simply put, I am glad that ETA gives men and women a fair opportunity to contribute at all levels, and fair recompense for so doing. Well done! It certainly makes me more disposed to continue, and perhaps increase my involvement with ETA , alongside the excellent service I have enjoyed over many years. Thank you