In 2016, Eleanor Dallaway wrote the report, ‘Closing the Gender Gap in Cybersecurity’, after conducting a diversity workshop attended by representatives from CREST member companies and industry.
Three years on, and two gender diversity workshops later – both run as part of the CREST Access to Cyber Security Day – Eleanor Dallaway seeks to report on any evolutions and progress that has been made, and more importantly, questions what still needs to be done to improve the diversity balance in the cybersecurity industry.
The original ‘Closing the Gender Gap in Cybersecurity’ report looked at why diversity matters, what was preventing women from pursuing a career in the industry and most importantly it looked at how we, as an industry, can address the gender gap and actually make a difference. The six areas that participants agreed needed to be focussed on back in 2015 were:
- Education – getting the right messaging to children at school age
- Awareness – how to promote the industry to women and get the messaging right in doing so
- Perception – considerations into the way we market our industry
- Inspiration – raising the profile of successful women in the industry• Support – the importance of female ambassadors and mentors
- Removing barriers to entry – looking at affordable training, conversion courses and flexible return to work policies, etc.
The report considered who the campaign to increase diversity should target. The following groups were listed:
- Primary school
- Secondary school
- Apprentices
- General university students
- Specialist university students
- Conversions from other academic disciplines
- Conversions from other industries
- Career changers/returners
- Retention of existing cybersecurity professionals.
The 2015 research concluded that the most important group to prioritise was secondary school students, followed by university graduates.
DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE
