Breaking the Stereotype: Women in Cybersecurity Push for Visibility, Pipeline Reform

In cybersecurity, the frontline isn’t just code and firewalls—it’s culture. Two voices from Lastwall, a security firm navigating some of the industry’s toughest compliance challenges, are calling out the hidden biases that still shape who gets heard, who gets promoted, and ultimately who gets to lead.

Ruth Okofu, an InfoSec Operations Engineer who has guided teams through high-stakes audits, has witnessed the disparity firsthand. “In my career leading teams through tough security and compliance programs, I’ve seen how often women are underestimated or overlooked in cybersecurity,” she said. Early in her career, she recalls, critical conversations about risk were held in rooms where women were nearly absent. That absence wasn’t just symbolic—it limited the perspectives shaping decisions.

Okofu argues that things shift dramatically when women aren’t just in the room, but steering it. “I’ve also seen the difference when women are trusted to lead. They deliver results and bring new perspectives that strengthen how teams approach problems,” she said. Still, she warns progress is incremental and fragile unless backed by structural reform. To her, visibility is power: women must be promoted fairly, sponsored into decision-making roles, and given platforms at conferences and in research. “Cybersecurity is about resilience. Resilience comes from diversity. Empowering women isn’t just inclusion – it’s a strategy for a stronger, more secure industry.”

That call for systemic change is echoed by Isabel Castillo, Lead Information Security Engineer at Lastwall. Her concerns begin not in the workplace, but in childhood. “A study performed by the University of Illinois, NYU, and Princeton University showed that by age 6, girls are more likely to think boys can be ‘brilliant’ and are ‘really, really smart’ – a stereotype that continues to be fueled by media, compliments, and marketing,” she noted. The implications, she says, ripple into boardrooms decades later, as those early messages shape who believes they belong in high-skill technical roles.

For Castillo, closing the gender gap in cyber requires rewiring cultural inputs early. She envisions education that highlights women’s scientific achievements, toys that spark engineering curiosity for all genders, and media that celebrates “geeky, techy heroines.” “Cybersecurity could be gamified in an inclusive way for both girls and boys, with compliments to girls reframed as, ‘You are incredibly talented; your intellect is growing with more practice,’” she said. Normalize those affirmations, she argues, and the boardrooms of tomorrow will look radically different.

The message from both Okofu and Castillo is clear: fixing representation in cybersecurity isn’t just about today’s hiring panels. It’s about breaking decades of stereotype conditioning and reshaping the pipeline from kindergarten classrooms to C-suites. Diversity, they argue, is not a “nice to have.” It’s a defensive advantage in an industry defined by its constant battle to anticipate the unexpected.