Thoughts on International Women’s Day 2023.
March 8, 2023 – Published on The Cyberwire
With March being Women’s History Month, and March 8th the observance of International Women’s Day, we assembled some thoughts and quotes with these themes in mind from women in our industry to share. Women make up about 24% of the cybersecurity workforce. While the disparity between the number men and women in our industry is shrinking in quantity, it is not in terms of equity.
The theme of 2023’s International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity – “For International Women’s Day and beyond, let’s all fully #EmbraceEquity. Equity isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. A focus on gender equity needs to be part of every society’s DNA. And it’s critical to understand the difference between equity and equality. The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action.”
What does International Women’s Day and the #EmbraceEquity theme mean to you? To the industry?
Kristen Bell, Director of Application Security Engineering, GuidePoint Security commented:
“This year’s theme is eye opening and impressive. I have always felt that “equality” never really hit the mark for me. I have always believed that women bring something unique to the table with regard to IT Security. One of my go-to quotes when I’m speaking about women in Cyber comes from Marilyn Monroe, “I don’t mind living in a man’s world as long as I can be a woman in it.” To speak about, and embrace equity versus equality, encapsulates the meaning I interpret in her words. Comparing and contrasting equity versus equality is a much simpler way of conveying and articulating a message that I’ve been speaking about for years, so I will likely be using this theme as a subject for years to come.
There are more jobs than people to fill them in Application Security and we are always looking for ways to build our own workforce and we are always looking for opportunities to encourage more people to think about joining our workforce. Putting successful women in cyber in the spotlight helps to encourage other women to choose a career in cyber. It also gives us the ability to illustrate the increase in women contributing to our space and to celebrate their accomplishments. International Women’s Day gives us the opportunity to get out there and spread our message.”
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