Women in cyber: celebrating progress and confronting the gender gap

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a moment to celebrate the achievements, strength, and impact of women across every community and profession. It is also a moment to pause, reflect, and recognise the barriers that still stand in the way of equality, particularly within fast‑growing digital fields such as technology and cyber security, where women remain significantly underrepresented.

While progress has been made in recent years, the data shows us that we still have far to go in building an industry where women feel supported, represented, and able to thrive.

This International Women’s Day, as businesses, educators, and communities honour women everywhere, it’s also vital that we look closely at the challenges shaping the future of tech and cyber, and the opportunities we have to drive meaningful change.

Celebrating the women who inspire us

International Women’s Day is, above all, a celebration. Across the world, women are leading teams, solving complex problems, innovating in digital spaces, supporting their families, caring for their communities, and changing the world in countless ways.

In tech and cyber security especially, women are breaking new ground despite being outnumbered at almost every level of the industry. Globally, women make up just 22–25% of the cyber security workforce according to multiple industry reports, highlighting slow but steady progress over the last decade. While representation is improving, it’s clear that we are still some distance away from achieving true gender balance in these sectors.

Today is an opportunity to highlight these contributions, acknowledge the women who have paved the way, and support those pursuing careers in fields where representation is still disproportionately low.

The reality: women still make up a minority in cyber security

Despite rising demand for cyber security professionals, women remain significantly underrepresented across the field. Current studies show:

• Women account for 22–25% of the global cyber security workforce, depending on the region and dataset.
• In some organisations, up to 16% of security teams have no women at all, underscoring a persistent imbalance that limits diversity of thought and innovation.
• Across 14 countries analysed by LinkedIn, women typically represent less than one-third of cyber professionals, reflecting a worldwide trend of male-dominated teams.

These figures matter - not only because representation is crucial for fairness, but because cyber security is fundamentally a problem‑solving discipline. Diverse teams consistently perform better, identify risks more effectively, and contribute to more secure digital ecosystems.

The gap becomes even more stark when looking at leadership representation. Globally, only 7% of women in cyber hold C‑suite roles, and their tenure is shorter than that of their male counterparts. When women remain underrepresented in decision‑making positions, the entire sector loses out on leadership diversity, role models, and pathways for future talent.

The gender gap in tech goes beyond cyber

Widely recognised UK reports paint an equally challenging picture. According to the 2025 Lovelace Report, women make up only about 20% of the UK’s tech workforce, and progress has remained “stubbornly slow” for more than a decade.

Meanwhile, the BCS Gender Diversity Report found that just one in five IT specialists in the UK are women, a figure that has shown little improvement in ten years.

This isn’t just a representation challenge - it’s an economic one.

The UK loses between £2 billion and £3.5 billion every year due to women leaving tech roles, taking skills, knowledge, and experience with them as they move to other industries or employers.

Many women cite structural issues as their main reasons for leaving tech, including:

• Lack of career progression (25%)
• Lack of recognition for their contributions (17%)
• Pay inequity (15%)
• Limited visibility of role models and unsupportive workplace cultures (8%)

These are not individual challenges - they are systemic patterns that have long shaped the experience of women entering and advancing within tech fields.

Why representation in cyber and tech matters

Representation is not just a diversity metric; it has real‑world consequences. A more inclusive cyber security and tech workforce brings benefits such as:

1. Stronger innovation and problem-solving.
   • Research consistently shows that diverse teams outperform more homogenous ones. In cyber, where attackers evolve quickly, diversity in thinking and background drives stronger defensive strategies.
2. Reduced skills gaps.
   • Cyber security faces a global workforce shortage, with more than 4.7 million unfilled roles worldwide, creating significant risk for organisations and governments alike. Bringing more women into the industry is essential to closing this gap.
3. Better digital products and safer technology.
   • Technology shapes daily life, from financial services and healthcare to AI systems and government infrastructure. Without gender diversity in the teams building these systems, products risk being biased, less secure, or less effective for large parts of society.
4. More role models for the next generation.
   • Visibility matters. When women see other women succeeding in cyber and tech, it expands the possibilities they imagine for themselves.

Building a more inclusive future

Creating a more equitable future in tech and cyber requires sustained, collective effort from organisations, educators, policymakers, and community leaders.

Based on emerging research, the most effective strategies include:

1. Creating clearer career pathways
   • Many women report challenges understanding how to progress in cyber roles. Structured pathways, transparent progression criteria, and accessible training can make a tangible difference.
2. Mentoring and sponsorship
   • Mentorship programmes have shown to significantly improve confidence, retention, and career advancement for women in cyber security.
3. Addressing pay disparities
   • Studies continue to show a gender pay gap across cyber security roles, ranging from 5% to over 20% depending on the region. Salary transparency and equitable reward structures are crucial.
4. Designing inclusive workplaces
   • Flexible working, inclusive policies, positive cultures, and proactive approaches to addressing bias all play a role in building environments where women want to stay and grow.
5. Early education and outreach
   • Introducing cyber and tech opportunities to young girls, through schools, clubs, community groups, and accessible resources, helps widen the pipeline long before career decisions are made.

A day to celebrate, reflect, and take action

International Women’s Day is a powerful reminder of the progress women have made, the challenges still ahead, and the work required to create more inclusive and equitable systems.

Women continue to make extraordinary contributions to cyber security and tech, even in industries where they are still underrepresented. Celebrating their achievements is important, but so is addressing the structural barriers that prevent full participation.

As we celebrate IWD, let’s commit to building a future where women are not just included, but empowered; not just present, but leading; and not just supported, but valued - in cyber, in tech, and in every part of society.

If we want the digital world to reflect the best of us, it must be shaped by all of us.