If You Want to Solve the Skills Gap, Fix the Gender Gap

[Commentary] There’s a shortfall of skilled cybersecurity professionals. Agencies across government will need to train or hire more people with the right skills in the coming year and beyond. To make up for this shortfall, most experts recommend creating a pipeline of applicants by starting early in the primary school grades to get students interested in STEM fields. But there’s another challenge associated with recruiting skilled workers: Most of those going into STEM fields are men.

Only 13 percent of the US cybersecurity professionals are women. Further, the number of women enrolling in computer science degrees is actually decreasing. In 1985, 37 percent of computer science graduates were women; in 2005, women only made up 22 percent. Despite the growing need for cybersecurity professionals, female enrollment in the fields necessary to get into these jobs continues to decrease. In fact, in 2010 only about 18 percent of undergraduates in STEM fields were women. Women, being about half the population, are a largely untapped resource for cybersecurity recruitment. Creating a pipeline of cybersecurity applicants will involve more than scholarships and competitions to recruit the professionals the government will need. Addressing the barriers to entry for women would open up a group of potential applicants largely overlooked in the past.

[Grinshpan is the Research Manager for the Government Business Council]