Women in Cyber Security

[WaterRide]

Last night I was having drinks in the bar where I met and chatted to a lady.  She's a graduate and currently working for Deloitte.  She was fascinated with what I do and mentioned she tried to get into cyber consultancy at her firm but was put off by the men who was sexist and belittled her.  She's not the first female to be put off working in this industry because of the actions of few.

 

The old-boys networks still dominate this industry when it comes to hiring staff; and the lack of female role models in the field means a cyber security career can seem unrealistic to most.

 

I offer mentoring and access to my network for some, but how can we encourage more women into this field? How do we change the behaviours of some (a lot of) men who still see girls as eye candy or only good for admin tasks?

[Rkiver]

It's actually really simple how we change this.

 

We raise better children. We raise them to look at what someone says and does, not what their reproductive organs may or may not be.

[Brain 0verride]

My wife works with me in cybersecurity in our company from more than 17 years. But when i put job offers on Internet, not only in cybersecurity but also in sysadmin, network admin etc. : it is *very very rare* to have a girl that answer a job offer. I create a new team for managing linux infrastructures (admin, ha, security...) in France, and don't have any girl to postulate. I've make a post about this to tell it is not only for men, but no answers :(.

--
Christophe Casalegno
http://twitter.com/Brain0verride

[BobbyLeeJones]

That is fine though, I think women in tech are awesome!

[PeterJK]

I agree, that more women should go into technology. The few I've had the pleasure of working with were outstanding. I've tried to get both my daughters, now in college, into tech, but they have their own minds and desires, one is going into Graphic arts, the other into Science/Bio Tech stuff. At my current employer, I've been able to suggest that they should hire more females, I think my voice was heard, but the resumes we get, have no females applying for any of the dev or support positions. They all pay very well by the way. Personally, I would hire a female if one applied as they are more empathetic then their male counterparts when working with end users and colleagues.