PRPR’s CEO, Allie Andrews, discusses why equity is needed to help encourage a more diverse cyber security industry.
Speaking up about encouraging more diverse people into cyber security careers on social media has more than once led to me being verbally abused. Invariably their vitriol stems from a belief that somehow if you lift up a section of society, it will be detrimental to them. One notable example of this is when I was promoting the work our client, CREST, was doing to encourage more women into the cyber security industry. Apparently, “people like me” were the reason this man couldn’t find a job. Essentially, he thought that giving women support to start cyber careers was detrimental to him. It had nothing to do with him being unreliable or bad at his job or underqualified, or whatever the real reason may have been.
I get it. When things are not going well for you it is easy to blame other people. And when sometimes, there appears to be more support and more opportunity for people who come from diverse backgrounds to work in your industry, it could feel threatening. It shouldn’t.
While some people will never get it, it is important in the drive for more diversity in cyber that everyone is on board. That everyone is important in the industry. It is important not to simply dismiss their fears as ridiculous. What is needed is to communicate to them the reasons for specific initiatives, the reasons why some diverse groups need more support, and why it benefits everyone in the industry to have diverse teams.
A key part of this is being clear on the difference between equity and equality and why equity is what we strive for and what drives so many of the initiatives to get more diverse people into cyber.
Equality means giving everyone the same opportunity to join and grow in the industry. But the truth is that not everyone needs the same thing to be able to get on in an industry.
Equity means giving everyone the ability to join and grow in the industry. I love this image which I think explains equity vs equality really well.
Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire
Whether it is providing financial support for qualifications for people from some socio-economic groups, giving people with dyslexia additional tools and time for exams or providing additional support for working mothers, sometimes some people just need an additional leg up. We need to stop seeing this as them having more opportunity. It isn’t, it just levels the playing field.
