Gender in Automobile Insurance Underwriting: Some Insureds Are More Equal Than Others

Abstract

This article examines the use of gender as a variable by the insurance industry to determine insurance premiums. This article explores the tension between society’s abhorrence of sexual discrimination on one hand, and the insurance industry’s need for a cost-effective method of classifying risk on the other. Following an analysis of how gender-based classification has been treated by Canadian and international courts, this article recommends that gender-based classification in Canada be eventually phased out.