THE REAL REASON FOR THE SHORTAGE OF WOMEN IN SECURITY

by Deika Elmi , Vice President Of Security

Culture is the key reason there is a shortage of women in security professions. Women with all the necessary talents opt for other jobs – some early on, some in the middle of promising careers. Ways to combat the shortage include altering the way security talent is recruited and emphasising the human element. Recruiters can attract more skilled women by tweaking job descriptions so they read more about helping people and less like the script of an action movie.

YOU DO NOT NEED A “WORK WARRIOR IN A FAST-PACED ENVIRONMENT”

It is no secret fewer women than men enter security professions. One reason for this is an inaccurate impression of what a role in security entails. Even in the most physically challenging environment you will certainly spend more time watching and talking to people than you spend in fistfights. However, that is often not the impression you would gain from a security job description. Yet, according to Winifred R Poster, a lecturer in international affairs at Washington University, in the US “job postings call for ‘ninjas’ and ‘cyberwarriors’.” Physically pulling a plug is the most action you can expect to see in most cybersecurity professions.

Engineering at Goldman Sachs

That kind of advertising is pervasive and, according to Chana R Schoenberger, editor-in-chief of American Banker, it turns women away from applying. As a PhD dissertation, The Underrepresentation of Females in the United States Cybersecurity Workforce, put it: “Everything is not young white guys at a black and green screen. There are other parts that can be highlighted, such as geopolitical, social, investigative, and the human element.”

Women who stay in cybersecurity often feel alienated and out of place before realising they do belong and do have the necessary skills. The author of a 2021 University of New England degree dissertation interviewed 16 C-suite women executives in cybersecurity and found one common experience: “The pivotal moment was the relationship of a mentor or sponsor who then validated their ability to do that role, giving them the confidence to push past those feelings of being an imposter.”

Those women who do enter the cybersecurity profession may not stay. A 2014 paper Women in STEM and Cyber Security Fields, presented to the American Society for Engineering Education’s Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration estimated 80 percent of men stay in cybersecurity while only 60 percent of women do. Skilled mid-career women often love the work itself, but become frustrated with an ‘expectations gap’ and a poor work culture. A 2008 Harvard Business Review report said 41 percent of women who entered the tech industry leave, compared to just 17 percent of men. A recent McKinsey report gave richer detail. It found, in tech, 37 percent of entry-level jobs held by women compared to 47 percent in other industries. That number dwindles with seniority. Women hold only 30 percent of managerial, 25 percent of senior manager/director, 20 percent of VP and 15 percent of C-suite roles.

Emphasise The Human Element

People skills are extremely important in security. Cybersecurity experts love to talk about extremely technical attacks like watching LEDs with a drone or decrypting RSA keys from the whir of a hard drive. Yet for every highly technical attack there are many more attacks that could have been stopped by persuading people to update their passwords and not click suspicious attachments. Bravery and geeky brilliance have their place, but far more of the day-to-day work of cybersecurity is .

That conclusion may be one explanation for the STEM skills shortage. Amanda Diekman, a professor of psychology at Indiana University, led a study which : “one important reason for [gender] discrepancy is that STEM careers are perceived as less likely than careers in other fields to fulfill communal goals (eg, working with or helping other people). Such perceptions might disproportionately affect women’s career decisions, because women tend to endorse communal goals more than men.”

Tragically, women’s very desire to help people is not helping them succeed in cybersecurity. Furthermore, this is the very talent the profession needs to attract if it is to successfully combat most cybersecurity attacks.

CHANGE THE CULTURE, SAVE THE WORLD

Companies intentionally or unintentionally alienate women during the sourcing and recruitment process A warrior ethos and whiz-bang technical details are not the heart of security work. Security professions are about helping people and keeping them safe. There are no cloaks nor daggers. Patience is needed far more often than a shuriken (a Japanese concealed weapon used a to distract or misdirect an opponent).

Women are not rare in security. As of 2017, around 44 percent of private detectives and investigators were women. Around 24 percent of the workforce in the investigations and security services sector were women. That number is growing: an extrapolation from Census data estimates 27.4 percent of workers in the investigations and security sector were women in 2019. One in four is far from parity, but it is progress that can be built upon.

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