March is Women’s History Month
Diversity in Cybersecurity

Women’s history month started back as Women’s History Week in 1980 by Jimmy Carter, and in 1987 Congress officially declared the month of March as Women’s History Month. But why is Women’s history month so important? And why am I talking about it in a Cybersecurity magazine?

Well, for starters, Women’s History Month actively highlights and celebrates the often-overlooked contributions of women throughout history. When people think of significant names in the cybersecurity field, the first names to come to mind include Bob Thomas, Ray Tomlinson, Kevin Mitnick, John McAfee. But what about Becky Bace, who created the Computer Misuse and Anomaly Detection research program in the NSA and is one of the leading pioneers for intrusion detection, or Dorothy Denning who founded Georgetown University’s Department of Computer Science and is one of only two women elected as Fellows of the National Academy of Engineering (the other being Grace Hopper, the woman who coined the terms debugging and compiler.) How about Valerie Thomas, who led NASA’s cybersecurity program from 1989 to 1993. Or even Ada Lovelace, who at only 19 years old wrote what is considered the one of the first computer programs in history. And if some of the most influential women in history are being ignored, imagine how the 24% of us that make up the cybersecurity field are treated.

The tech industry, though seen as one of the fastest growing and most innovative spaces, has traditionally been very male-dominated. And despite the progress in gender equality over recent decades, there remains significant barriers that hinder the career growth and contributions of women. Remember the 24% I brought up in the last paragraph? That number comes from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), who also found that the number of women in leadership positions is significantly lower. The reality is women face misogyny in the workforce on a daily basis that contributes to keeping this numbers so low. We face unconscious biases, where many managers/leaders hold implicit biases that favor male candidates, even when woman are just as or more qualified; toxic work cultures where jokes, comments, and behaviors that are overtly sexist are normalized; unequal pay and opportunities, with numerous studies showing that women are paid less than their male counterparts for similar roles; and frequent harassment suggesting that we are less capable than our male peers and to stay out of the field (spend one hour on Reddit in the r/Technology forum and you can confirm this for yourself.)

I’m sure by this point you’ve already thought “I would never do that,” but you can’t deny that you haven’t at least witnessed this behavior from a coworker or a colleague you are having dinner with at a conference. Most men who don’t engage in misogynistic behaviors may not realize the extent of the problem in their workplaces. Men in positions of power and influence have a unique opportunity as we enter 2025 to lead the charge to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for women in the technology field. Challenge those gender biases and stereotypes by just speaking up. Mentor and advocate for women within your company, speak up when you hear someone making a dismissive comment or offhand joke, be willing to have those difficult conversations. Just the other day I responded to a conversation in the group chat at work with the most professional, respectful message I could compose (I know, as I rewrote it 4x before sending it) explaining that I actually have significant experience with a certain program and the tasks I’ve been doing with said program for the past year so they don’t have to spend time continuing to type out basic instructions, and that if they have any ideas to improve the current policies I would love to have a team meeting to discuss. I even overused the exclamation marks in the message as I tend to do, then followed up with another (unneeded) message trying to downplay my comment more by stating that I always want to improve communication and that’s why I explain exactly what I do on my side. Suddenly the chat was very quiet and remained that way for the rest of the day. Now keep in mind, there are many messages going back in that chat of people overexplaining and writing long messages, but this was the first time I had done so after working there for almost two years. Every woman I showed my message to commented on how professional and respectful it was, yet I found out later than my message was referred to by a male in a leadership position as “protective” and “irrational” in a conversation with other coworkers.

This Women’s History Month, it’s time to address the collective action required to address the issue of misogyny in the technology industry. This is not an issue that women can solve alone. Men, as allies, have a very critical role to play in creating a respectful and equal tech landscape. It’s past time for the tech field to become an innovator in change and inclusion, so let’s get going!