Events to Help Make Permanent Change
Day of Shecurity
The lack of gender diversity continues to plague the technology industry. Women and non-binary folks are vastly underrepresented and under-promoted in technology roles, hampering the industry’s effectiveness. According to a report by the organization ISACA, 64% of participants indicated the number of women in cybersecurity roles has increased, though only 13% said it was a significant improvement, and 86% of cybersecurity teams are mostly or all men. While the numbers are improving, (ISC)² reports that women still only hold 24% of cybersecurity roles.
Young women and non-binary people may not consider security a viable career path when they do not see themselves represented in leadership and mentoring roles. In fact, because of these gaps, qualified individuals are often left out of training, mentoring, and speaking opportunities, hampering their professional growth. This issue is further pronounced in the field of information security, where diverse and creative talent is needed the most.
To change the course of this industry’s hiring practices and provide a bright future for anyone who wishes to accept the challenge, we must come together in a massive way. The only way to address the situation is by concentrated mentoring, training, and recruitment of qualified women and non-binary people. To address that, we invite meetups, nonprofits, and commercial businesses to show technology communities that we can make a difference together. Before 2021, we hosted conferences in Boston & San Francisco. With the pandemic’s impact on the world, we hosted our first virtual conference in 2021. We look forward to continuing virtual events and adding regional in-person events worldwide. Our goal is to stand united and help change direction not only for the future of the technology industry and for the potential future careers of women in technology at each DOS event. We hope every participant will leave with a clear understanding of and direct interactive exposure to what is actually involved in the information security & cybersecurity industry, what skills they will need to build to transition into this field, and the resources and disciplines to pursue to make this professional leap forward a reality.
Day of Shecurity is a free-to-attend interactive one-day conference that originally launched in 2017 in San Francisco for women in technology interested in cybersecurity. Day of Shecurity launched in Boston in 2019 and virtual, location-agnostic conferences in 2021. The event is an effort by Secure Diversity, the Lookout Foundation, Day of Shecurity Core Team, and various organizations that believe that diversity & inclusion matter in our industry.
Additionally, local area non-profits and special interest groups are invited to participate. If you are interested in having a Day of Shecurity event in your region, please reach out to us.