Putting Lipstick on a Pig
If we care about gender parity in cybersecurity, we need to change the way that that “cyber women” are portrayed.
I was Googling when tragedy struck. As a cybersecurity strategist, I was trying to find images of a female cybersecurity expert to refresh a dated briefing presentation. When I typed “cyber, woman” and then clicked “Images,” my giant, super-jumbo widescreen monitor was suddenly filled wall-to-wall with sexually explicit imagery. There were women in skin-tight neoprene bodysuits holding silver orbs over their breasts and completely nude women in provocative postures with transparent lines of code covering their bodies. There were futuristically-styled women holding all-too-phallic corn on the cob or huge, intimidating medical syringes. There were women in bondage gear. I closed the tab. Within a few seconds the shock wore off and I initiated a new search, this time with the phrase “cyber, professional.” The results were just that…professional, and I found the imagery I needed.
So what’s the real issue here? Are the engineers tagging imagery or writing algorithms for search results just overtly, blatantly sexist? I suspected that my choice of search terms had caused me to stumble upon a characterized “cyberwoman.” To check this theory, I Googled up “cyber, man.” What I found was a montage to Dr. Who’s “Cybermen” — a fictional race of cyborgs. Somehow, I wasn’t reassured. How did things get so sexually skewed when it came to the cyberwoman character? At a time when the cybersecurity industry is largely lacking in female representation, I think the characterizations deserve attention.
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