Background
WINS Gender Champions Programme is committed to highlighting the need for gender parity in the hiring, retention, promotion and recognition of the expertise of women in nuclear security, especially in those areas where women are significantly under-represented.
To this end, WINS launched a special three-part webinar series, funded by Canada, to identify best practices and ways forward to advance and amplify the role of women in nuclear security at all levels, with the result that:
- Employers in the sector are supportive of and inclusive of women from trainee level to board members and senior executive ranks.
- Women pursue nuclear security as a career.
- Women gain certification in nuclear security to support their careers.
- Women are active as experts and opinion leaders in the sector.
- Women are promoted and recognised based on their expert contribution to the discipline.
Objectives
Women are under-represented in cybersecurity. The objective of this webinar was to discuss and demonstrate the importance of a diverse and inclusive sector for women in this area, barriers to entry, opportunities, lessons learned and the way forward.
The webinar was facilitated by Rhonda Evans, Lead for the WINS Gender Champions Programme.
Our special guests for the webinar were:
- Mr Chris Ensor is Deputy Director for Cyber Skills and Growth of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in the United Kingdom. He has worked in cybersecurity for nearly 30 years in a variety of roles, all of which have involved building new capabilities to help organisations protect themselves. As Deputy Director for Cyber Skills and Growth, he is charged with developing the National Cyber Security Centre's research, skills, and innovation expertise, to nurture the UK's cyber security capability.
- Ms Zoe Edmeades is the Managing Director and Co-owner of The Security Company (International) Limited. She is an inspirational thought leader and has a career dedicated to global culture and behaviour change. Over 2.5 million people have developed their thinking through the support of TSC, allowing Zoe to fulfil her passion for embedding security into everyone’s DNA. Zoe is dedicated to raising the profile of women in cyber and with over 60% of her senior management team being female, she practices what she preaches. Zoe also works with partner The Security Awareness Special Interest Group (SASIG) to encourage a diverse panel of speakers and has written various articles promoting diversity within security.
- Ms Sayako Quinlan is a digital forensics consultant at the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike where she investigates Nation State and criminal hacking incidents. Prior to CrowdStrike, she worked for Microsoft and New America, researching cybersecurity topics such as IoT security policy, cyber capacity building, the gender gap in cybersecurity. She has a paper published titled "A Brief History on Law Enforcement Hacking in the United States." She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown University with a major in Science, Technology, and International Affairs. Sayako is also the co-Chair of the Cyber Security & Emerging Technologies Working Group at Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security & Conflict Transformation (WCAPS).
Each contributor provided the following during their presentation:
- Their story, a first-hand account of their role and experience in cybersecurity;
- Their view on why underrepresentation of women in cybersecurity needs to be addressed and how to create meaningful change;
- An example of a project or initiative which advances women in cybersecurity;
- Lessons learned and the way forward in increasing the representation of women in cybersecurity.
A survey was conducted in advance of the webinar that was intended to objectively put the issue into context and to identify actionable ways forward in addressing the under-representation of women in cybersecurity. The results were presented by the WINS facilitator during the opening of the webinar.
- What do you think is the current level of representation of women in cybersecurity?
- Do you think that women are underrepresented in cybersecurity?
- Are cybersecurity roles perceived as predominantly male?
- What do you think is the main obstacle to women entering cybersecurity?
- What do you think is the best method to increase female representation in cybersecurity?
Process
Date: Wednesday, 2 December 2020 from 16:00-17:00 CET
Duration: 60 minutes
Language: English
Recording: The webinar recording is available here.
Reference materials
The Special Report on Gender and Nuclear Security
WINS gender webpages here
