At the recent Barnes Buchanan conference during a networking reception, I was asked by a woman new to the security industry if I thought a women’s breakout event might be a good idea. She had seen similar initiatives in her previous industry and thought it would be a good addition to the conference. She was pleased to hear about some of the wider industry initiatives I informed her of, such as SIA’s Women in Security Forum (WISF) and Security LeadHER conferences, and we discussed some ideas to propose for the event for next year. Overall, it was a positive discussion about how the industry is moving forward.
However, my very next conversation with an industry veteran was less encouraging. She described a recent event (in 2023) she attended where a panel on “women in security” was made up of all men and moderated by someone asking the kinds of demeaning and diminishing questions that had many of the women in the room looking at one another and thinking, “seriously?”