As today is International Women’s Day, we wanted our very own award winning Cyber Expert Christina Stevenson to give us an insight into the landscape of women in the cyber industry.
CyberCX has been at the forefront of encouraging and helping women thrive in the cyber and tech industry.
In this blog we look at women involved in tech and cyber, and how Christina has seen a change in the industry.
International Women’s Day 2022
This year’s International Women’s Day focuses on ‘breaking the bias’ and working towards a world free of stereotypes and discrimination; a world that is diverse, equitable and inclusive.
If you want to learn more, please visit: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
Diversity
Gender diversity in tech/cyber is so important. Cyber and Technology industries that fail to attract and retain a diverse range of employees are posing a much larger and unnecessary risk to themselves and their customers. The amount of difference in ideas, questions and challenges raised within a diverse workforce is astounding. Christina has been seeing a shift even in core functions such as business procurement processes to include organisations’ social values as part of their overall scoring.
Businesses should prioritise diversity through nurturing and maturing meaningful relationships to retain these diverse genders through pledges, commitments and codes of conduct to share an aligned vision, as well as reviewing the brand image that the organisation is creating through their business language and ensure that it targets the gender diversity that the organisation is seeking. For example, images of a diverse team on websites and promotional material.
Gender Inclusion
Having worked in the cyber and tech industry for over 10 years, Christina has definitely noticed an improvement in gender inclusion from a decade ago. The difference in the industry from when she first entered it over 10 years ago to now is enormous. The opportunities that are presented to diverse groups have significantly increased. The stereotype of tech/cyber industries is that women are pre-judged to be great risk or business communicators but not so strong on technical elements. This perception has greatly shifted and the level of opportunity for inclusion into technical boardrooms, discussions and operations are vastly increasing.
Education and the Future
The support provided by CyberCX to attract women into the technology and cyber security industries starts at the educational level, through college level women in tech forums, which is an effective way to introduce young women to the workforce. It is imperative to show women the current landscape of the careers available and the open vacancies to strive for.
The technology and cyber security industries have a long way to go when it comes to equality and diversity, but it is companies like CyberCX that set an example, pioneering the topic and recognising its vitality for business growth.
Looking for your next challenge?
If you’re looking for a new challenge in cyber security, take a look at our careers page and find out more about life at CyberCX.
