Elspeth Brewin says she has had to endure a lot in making her way up the ranks of the male-dominated insurance industry ? things like men telling her she would never, as a woman, make her career objective of becoming a broker in the Lloyd?s of London market.

But Mrs. Brewin pressed on, saying this week the good news was the sector had grown much more professional in the years since 1983 when she first broke into the insurance world. Going back 22 years, Mrs. Brewin said her early experiences at Lloyd?s, the venerable London institution, underscore just how much more professional the industry has grown.

Mrs. Brewin said that her promotion after two years from the junior ranks of the ?broker backup? department to being given her ?ticket to Lloyd?s? ? effectively permission to go out broking ? still made her only the sixth woman to ever make it in.

However, proving her mettle did little to stop the patronising comments, she said. A case in point, was being given menial tasks when returning to work in 1989 after the birth of her first child.

Upon protesting one basic assignment she was given after her maternity leave, she was told by one male colleague not to complain; that it was a ?known fact that women?s brains went to mush after pregnancy?.

Despite all of this ? or maybe in spite of it, with the barbs perhaps fuelling a drive to advance ? Mrs. Brewin has been able to rise into the senior ranks of the sector. Mrs. Brewin told of her experience in a speech to about 20 women gathered yesterday for the periodic members lunch of the Organisation of Women in International Trade (OWIT) ? Bermuda.

She is now a vice-president of energy company mutual Oil Insurance Limited (OIL), and in her second year as president of the Bermuda Insurance Institute.

She added that today women were more and more valued in the workplace, and nowhere was this more evident than in Bermuda.

Saying that a significant percentage of the Island?s white-collar workforce is comprised of females, Mrs. Brewin ? herself a mother of three ? said women are making great strides because they ?can balance work and family?.

But she said that women who have made careers a priority have inevitably had to make choices and sacrifices.

She called on the group to do what they could to instil a strong work ethic in future generations, saying companies were in Bermuda because of certain advantages, but part of that had to be continue access to workers.

In conclusion she told the all-female audience: ?A lot is up to us and I think we are pretty good at delivering.?