Microsoft uses research to find causes of cybersecurity gender gap

Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

Though Microsoft released a pack of Edge browser themes in honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, that’s not all it’s doing. As mentioned in a blog post by corporate vice president Vasu Jakkal, the company has also commissioned a survey to learn more about what may be contributing to the gender gap in cybersecurity.

Jakkal’s post, entitled “2.5 million-plus cybersecurity jobs are open — women can fill them” begins with a discussion about the drawbacks of having a cybersecurity workforce wherein only 25% of workers are female. One item listed by Jakkal is research indicating that gender-diverse teams make better decisions than teams that are gender uniform. Jakkal also highlighted that there are 2.5 million job openings in the cybersecurity field and putting an emphasis on bringing in underrepresented talent could fill those openings.

According to the survey Microsoft commissioned to learn more about the gender gap’s contributing factors, there are numerous reasons women may not be already filling those 2.5 million vacancies: “The survey indicated women are more likely than men (71 percent versus 61 percent) to think that cybersecurity is ‘too complex’ of a career. Men are more likely than women (21 percent versus 10 percent) to feel qualified to apply for a cybersecurity job posting. And more women than men (27 percent versus 21 percent) believe men are seen as a better fit for technology fields.”

Jakkal’s blog post discusses other survey results and how Microsoft’s working to balance the scales, as well as includes a segment about her personal background and how it relates to the topic at hand, so it’s worth a read if the topic is of interest to you.