Following on from annual tradition, the organisers of International Women’s Day provide a campaign theme as a guide to collectively work together towards the same goal. This year’s theme is “Each for Equal” and being Europe’s leading authority and trusted partner for hiring Cyber Security professionals, we have seen first-hand the gap in professional equality throughout the industry and the struggle to close it.
The efforts of women fighting for gender equality have always been part of our historical society and whilst the glass ceiling has been shattered by women before us, changing the infrastructure of society to make room for equality, we must continue to integrate new solutions and innovative approaches within STEM environments to create a gender responsive atmosphere.
The gender gap report 2020 revealed that currently in the UK only 27.2% of board directors are women and whilst this is a consequence of a number of factors, it’s important that we advance and champion the women forging the way and collectively help create a gender-equal world. The consequence of a male dominant industry can be significantly damaging to multiple generations worth of talent if companies aren’t putting in place sustainable infrastructure to support full equality; which means making sure women have a platform to be innovators, and not just consumers of innovation is absolutely critical moving forward. The Global Gender Gap Report 2020 also revealed that gender parity will not be attained for 99.5 years, which means that none of us will see gender equality in our lifetime.
If we focus on the matter close to our hearts, women represent only 20% of the Cyber Security workforce and whilst that has increased from 11% over the past five years, we are still a milestone away from true equality. It is important for us to acknowledge the skills gap, but also appreciate the strong female role models that have paved a way for women in this industry and understand how to empower, amplify and champion these innovative female, but developing and deploying one-half of the world’s available talent has a huge bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of Cyber Security as an industry.
Empowering females and fighting for equality is crucial in creating opportunities and building a more inclusive system in not only cyber but every social system, in order to shape an equal and innovative society for generations after us. “An equal world is an enabled world” and every one of us can do our bit to bring about gender equality.