The right balance: Enabling women to pursue a career in IT

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This year, International Women’s Day centers around the theme of #BalanceforBetter, a message I think is particularly apt in my industry, cybersecurity.

The hashtag is a shortened version of the sentiment, “Better the balance, better the world,” and indeed, issues of gender imbalance in the industry have never been more important. Cybersecurity currently lacks a high proportion of female talent, with estimates suggesting nearly 90% of the workforce is male. Research Kaspersky Lab undertook earlier this year found that in the IT industry in general, half of respondents reported working on majority-male teams, six times the number who work on a team that is mainly female.

I grew up in Yugoslavia, where a passion for, and career in, computing was not unusual for a woman. At university, 70% of my computing course was female — and that was the norm; women in Eastern Europe had always been encouraged to pursue technical careers. When I moved to Western Europe to complete my masters, that number became just 7% — a real culture shock — and I began my career in programming among very few women. Moving into a customer-facing, presales role, I stood out as a young woman dressed in a bright outfit in a sea of black suits. However, I used this to my advantage, knowing that I would at least be remembered for being different, which helped me build some strong commercial relationships.

Now, I want more women to see that a technical career, and especially one in cybersecurity, is rewarding and worth pursuing. At the same time, I also want to make sure the environment they’re coming into is welcoming and supportive.

At Kaspersky Lab, we are proud of the many women who contribute to our mission, from the second-in-command of sales to those working on the research and development teams to protect against cyberthreats. But we want to do more. We want more enthusiastic and driven women to join our teams and help us save the world by bringing different experiences and viewpoints to the task. It’s not just that a career in this industry benefits women; the industry benefits from a more diverse workforce.  

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