Raising the profile of women in security may be my passion, but it’s everyone’s job

There’s a difference between reading about the lack of women in security and doing something about it.

I’ve worked both sides of that argument – first during 10 years as publisher of CSO Australia, and more recently in partnership with the Australian Women in Security Network (AWSN) – and I assure you that doing something about the situation is much harder, but also much more rewarding.

As a publisher, I read articles about how women in security were sparse; blog posts advising CSOs about how to retain the few women already working in security; requests for female mentors or career advice; and social media posts from successful security women sharing advice about how to not be the only female in the room.

It was a great job, although I didn’t understand all the security parts – I managed to work through that part with the help of a very supportive, patient network.

At the same time, the debate became more than academic when I was faced with teenage girls growing up in a school system where tech subjects were just not cool. Out in the real world of education, cybersecurity and STEM still don’t get much of a mention – and IT was always advocated for by the nerdy, uncool teacher.

Can we really be surprised that teenage girls wouldn’t go for this?

In recent years I have been working to explore my growing passion to make a difference – to help Australia’s cybersecurity industry overcome the built-in biases that are limiting businesses and keeping our best and brightest young women from an industry that is already primed to give them satisfying, flexible, rewarding careers.

Empowering women to join the security community is a core goal of AWSN, and in the eight years since I met founder Jacqui Loustau, we have been working hard to build a community capable of driving change.

Yet for all its successes, I quickly realised that AWSN could only do so much as an association. Staff were all volunteers and most had full-time jobs. Some had families and some did not, but all were working every hour of their days – as colleagues, mentors, advisors, advocates, and more – to make a difference.

Watching their commendable and ongoing efforts, I realised that it is not AWSN’s burden alone to change the way females are seen within security, or to increase their numbers in the industry. It’s not the responsibility of any one committed group to show females the many exciting career paths in security, or to identify standout achievers and highlight them as paragons to inspire others.

It is all of our responsibility – and launching Women in Security Magazine was one small step in the ongoing effort to provide a solid platform for women in the security industry.

Looking back, the ingredients were all there: the industry knowledge. The wonderful relationships I have gained and nurtured with like-minded individuals over the years. The amazing women who are leading IT security, cybersecurity, physical security, security resilience and privacy teams.

They’re out there, doing great work every day – and their stories need to be told.

We have taken some concrete steps to do this in recent years, not only by growing the membership of AWSN into the many thousands but through steps such as establishing the annual Australian Women in Security Awards in 2019 and running the second (albeit virtual) awards last year.

Women in Security Magazine focuses on giving the industry a platform to recognise the work of all those amazing women – not only to recognise their achievements, but to motivate the next generation of students to ignore their school’s bias, and give cybersecurity a try.

I hope you’ll continue to join us on this journey to hear these stories, share your thoughts, and help make that little bit of difference in your own way. It’s only together that we can balance the playing field – and help the security industry benefit from the amazing talents of some of Australia’s most capable, inspiring women.