As Harvard Happiness Researcher & Expert, Shawn Achor writes in his book, “Before Happiness”, it is critical to your success and happiness to get different perspectives in order to solve problems and ensure you are overcoming Happiness Hijackers. I was just listening to the passage of the book on perspective and the “Angles & Dangles” (you have to read or listen to the book) exercise in the Navy on my 2 hour drive to St. Petersburg, Florida to attend the first annual ISSA Women in Security event.
At this point, you may be wondering how this is relevant and interesting to the topic of this blog, but stay with me, and I will get to that.
When I arrived at the ISSA event, I saw a group of people (mostly women) making their way from the main building to another one, so I stopped them and asked,
“Are you heading to the Women in Security event?”
At which, I got mostly smiles and head nods, but I also couldn’t help but notice one young woman look at me a little funny, smile and quietly whisper under her breath with a soft chuckle to her male companion “Women Insecurity.”
I still didn’t get it until I was enthusiastically explaining that I just left an incredible “Women in Security” event, and she looked at me quizzically and asked…
“So, um, why are they so insecure?”
Now, my sister is a Dental Hygienist and doesn’t work in the IT or InfoSec field, so her perspective was both humorous and enlightening. I hadn’t seen the obvious blunder I was making, (even making the dreaded Twitter hashtag mistake of not researching the hash tag before tweeting all about the #Womeninsecurity event!) Yes, I really did this- you can see for yourself on Twitter @cmpusateri).
All joking aside, this shift in perspective got me thinking that, while the event was geared toward promoting the incredible women leading the charge in Information Security, a fast-paced, growing and exciting industry for both men and women looking for exciting career opportunities (which is expected to grow by over 50% in the next four years), perhaps one of the reasons that women only make up 11% of the professionals in the industry could be exactly that- our own insecurities.
Now, I am not advocating that women are less secure or weaker or disadvantaged. I wholeheartedly believe that in today’s world (specifically in the U.S.), we create our own destiny, no matter what our gender, race or ethnicity. However, I did hear from women at the event that there are some real challenges (and opportunities) that women in this profession face (including lack of confidence or competitive spirit and feeling overlooked or ignored) that could be preventing women from pursuing these high paying and highly rewarding careers in IT Security and Risk Management.
I am excited to share with you all of the insights I gleaned from this enlightening event, so stay tuned for my recap of the event in my next blog post with key insights from the incredible panel of leaders on stage today, along with some additional takeaways from the event.
Until then, please share your success story, concern or challenge with me on LinkedIn, Twitter or here on my blog.
Cheers!
Christa