I see gender diversity in tech as serving both of those ends . One , we need more people , period . Therefore , let ' s make sure that we have as many of the available talent as possible that are moving into these STEM fields and cybersecurity . Secondly , let ' s make sure that the people developing the solutions are as diverse as possible .
Q . WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AS A WOMAN IN THE CYBERSECURITY SPACE ?
ยป I studied engineering in college , and my engineering classes in computer science and electrical engineering had probably less than 25 % women . I then went into the software engineering profession and served as a member of technical staff for a few tech companies . There , too , the representation of women was incredibly low .
I then had a 13-year consulting career where , at least in the early part , you might be closer to 40 %, sometimes 45 % women . But as you get closer to the topnotch parts of the consulting firms , it ' s at times less than 10 % female . So , I am fairly used to being in a professional environment that has a huge disparity in the number of women versus men .
Cybersecurity itself is also an area where the historical image of people in cybersecurity has been the person in the basement wearing a hoodie , and generally a man or a younger male . That has not done us any favours in terms of trying to get young women really encouraged and wanting to participate .
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