The cybersecurity gender gap: How diverse teams improve threat response

In this Help Net Security interview, Julie Madhusoodanan, Head of CyberSecurity at LinkedIn, discusses how closing the gender gap could enhance cybersecurity’s effectiveness in combating emerging threats. With women still underrepresented in cybersecurity roles, she emphasizes how diverse teams bring essential skills and innovative perspectives.

Madhusoodanan outlines strategies like inclusive hiring, mentorship, and flexible work policies as essential steps to foster gender balance in the field.

What impact would closing the gender gap in cybersecurity have on the industry’s ability to respond to emerging threats?

Our data shows the cybersecurity industry is still overwhelmingly dominated by men, with women holding fewer than one in five roles in the US, and just one in three roles across all the countries we analyzed.

Closing the gender gap is a critical part of strengthening the industry’s ability to respond to emerging cyber threats, bringing a broader range of perspectives and experiences, and allowing cyber teams to solve problems more innovatively. We know that diverse teams are more effective teams. And in the world of cybersecurity, a team that’s more effective at detecting threats and stopping bad actors before they can do harm helps that bottom line and the organization’s customers or users.

Intervention is needed to help address systemic imbalances in the labor market.

• A focus on skills when hiring can help to put women on the front foot when applying for jobs. LinkedIn research found that women were almost twice as likely as men to apply for a role when they were shown how their existing skills overlapped with the job requirements.
• Inclusive and fair hiring practices, which can include using gender neutral language in job descriptions, creating diverse interview panels, and no longer asking for prior salaries to reduce the impact of starting salary negotiations.
• Encouraging flexible working for all workers to help address the care burden that can disproportionately impact women.
• Upskilling and career growth; training and mentorship schemes, especially in pre- and middle-management roles
• Factoring in gender when up-skilling for AI; as the workplace is transformed, ensuring training is handled in a fair and equitable way.

How can cybersecurity be presented as a viable and attractive career option for young women who may not initially consider it?

Firstly, we need to remember that it’s harder to be what we can’t see, and to that point, barriers start at a young age. Girls and young women don’t always have visible female role models who work in cyber to look up to. Turning the tide on this trend starts with showcasing women in cyber – sharing their stories and experiences, and breaking the stereotype that it’s a boys’ club.

Secondly, employers should lead with a skill-based approach. Cybersecurity requires soft skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and strong communication abilities – skills which often play to women’s strengths, but many of us don’t lean into this advantage. In fact, our latest data shows that women’s share of these soft skills is 1.28x higher than men.

Thirdly, we need to increase awareness around the broad accessibility of cybersecurity roles. We should create targeted education and outreach programs such as workshops and coding camps to highlight the wide range of career paths available and what is needed to pursue them. For example, Microsoft and LinkedIn have teamed up to unlock free LinkedIn Learning courses for career essentials in Cybersecurity, and the learning path is eligible for a Professional Certificate from Microsoft. Resources like this one help people see there’s something for everyone and help them learn the foundational skills they need to succeed in pursuing in-demand jobs like those in cyber.

Finally, flexibility is key. Our data also shows drop-offs in female representation as women start climbing the leadership ladder. Flexible work arrangements are essential to fostering gender equality, and must be encouraged for both men and women. This is critical if we’re to break the tradition that women shoulder the majority of caregiving and make space for women in the workplace.

Internships and entry-level programs are often mentioned as ways to bridge the gender gap. Are these genuinely effective, and how can they be improved to ensure long-term success for participants?

Internships and entry-level programs can definitely help bridge the gender gap in cybersecurity. When designed thoughtfully, they offer young women valuable hands-on experience, opportunities to network and meet people working in the field, and insights into the industry that they wouldn’t have had previously.

These programs should also offer mentorship support – for example, pairing interns with experienced female professionals who can guide them and provide networking opportunities. In addition to mentorship support, allyship is the other key to long-term success. Allyship can accelerate the induction and growth of women into cybersecurity leadership roles.

Removing bias from job descriptions, requiring diverse candidate slates, and including women on interview panels can also help to make hiring more inclusive and ensure women are hired in the longer-term. Examples of bias include words like dominant.

Can you discuss the impact of mentorship and sponsorship programs on female retention in cybersecurity? How can organizations better support career development for women?

Mentoring and training programs are vital for women working in male-dominated fields as well as helping them in their early management roles.

Mentorship not only gives women the confidence to apply for that step up to leadership, but it also forces people in positions of power to connect with and develop the careers of their junior female staff.

Mentorship programs and interventions at the pre-manager stage are particularly important as we think about how to increase the number of women in leadership and help women grow their careers. A great program we have at LinkedIn called Women in Tech is an employee-led effort to challenge the gender imbalance among technical roles. This program helps foster our internal talent to thrive and succeed and become role models for the next generation of technical talent.

These initiatives offer women guidance, support, and networking opportunities, which are key for navigating career paths in a male-dominated field. When women have access to mentors, they’re more likely to feel empowered and valued, increasing their likelihood of staying in the industry.

Are regions or countries making notable progress in closing the cybersecurity gender gap? What can be learned from their approaches?

The good news is that we are seeing that some countries are making huge strides in closing the cybersecurity gender gap. Our most recent data shows that Brazil, Poland, and Germany have seen the highest changes year-over-year in share of women in the cybersecurity workforce. While we have a way to go, it’s encouraging to see progress and potentially offers lessons for others.

We’re seeing effective approaches in Canada and the UK, where they have implemented targeted initiatives that focus on education, providing scholarships and training specifically for women, and encouraging girls to pursue STEM fields from an early age.

One key takeaway from these successful approaches is the importance of collaboration between government, educational institutions, and industry stakeholders. By creating partnerships, we can foster environments that support women in cybersecurity and provide resources for skill development.

Ultimately, closing the gender gap will require a multi-pronged approach, including educational reforms to promote inclusive access to cybersecurity (and STEM) education, targeted training programs for women, highlighting female role models in cybersecurity, and more.