8 obstacles women still face when seeking a leadership role in IT
Yet, for many women, a child increases their commitment. “I want to leave a legacy behind for my daughter of a world that will support her,” Mikadze says. “I think that is true for every mother. We want better for our children.”
In tech leadership, this problem is inflated by the fast pace of change, which creates a real knowledge gap on top of the social bias. “Cybersecurity doesn’t stay stagnant,” says Briggs. “What’s top of mind today, could be old news next week. If you leave the workforce for eight or 12 weeks, some of what you were working on may not be relevant.”
If you take your job seriously, you probably won’t drop that interest when you go on leave. But you might have to prove this by staying in touch and keeping your head in the game. It helps, too, to have a boss who understands. “I have women working for me,” says Briggs. “I understand this. But everybody may not.”
A disparity in maternity and paternity leave contributes to the problem. According to Vitaitė, this is especially true in European markets where women can take as much as a year of maternity leave and men are offered much less. Even when a woman has no desire to have children, this is weighed against her.
“Men are preferred when it comes to employment or leadership positions,” says Vitaitė, because the employers don’t want to make accommodations for maternity leave. If regulations required that men and women be offered the same amount of leave, men would better understand the situation at work (and at home) and it would eliminate some of this bias. “The discrimination on the employer side would be lower,” she says, “because they would have to balance the workload for leave in either case.”
8. When visible, you are objectified
The world of technology has a rich history of “booth babes.” At one time, the only women you saw in a computer magazine or at a tech trade show were porn-adjacent spokesmodels. When you are one of only a few female tech leaders (or journalists) at an event that uses women as props, it is uncomfortable. It is also detrimental to your career. The industry has, to a large extent, grown out of this type of objectification. But it still happens.
“Cybersecurity is still very male-dominated,” says Briggs. “We make all these strides and then something stupid happens like the ladies that wore lampshades on their heads at Black Hat. I felt like, we took two steps backwards.”
Briggs suggests that women speak up when this sort of thing happens. “Speak with your words,” she says. “Or with your legs.” Refuse to attend events that participate in this sort of thing. Use it, too, as Gligoric does, as your strength: Call it out while pointing out your own skills, experience, and knowledge.
If you are male and in a decision-making capacity at a tech company, though, it falls to you to avoid making this sort of decision. This is not something women will do or enjoy. Company events should be gender neutral. Using women as sex objects holds the women in your company back — and will likely result in considerable backlash.
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