On Thursday March 11, 2021 Willis College was proud to be a co-presenter of the 2021 Global Forum: Women In Cyber And The History of Work. Presented alongside our partners, KPMG, Faethem AI, and the Canadian Department of National Defence, this virtual conference was a resounding success, one that we cannot wait to replicate in 2022!

We were honoured to welcome 17 speakers from across North American to share their insight and experiences on the experience of women in the field of CyberSecurity. Anchored by a keynote address by Bonnie Butlin, our speakers spoke on various topics surrounding the current state of affairs for women in the field of CyberSecurity and what that means for the future of work in the industry and in general to more than 200 registrants.

Key themes that came out of their discussion included the impact that the pandemic has had on CyberSecurity. It was noted that though women have made small strides in gaining gender equality in the field, the pandemic has pushed those efforts back drastically. As women are more likely to leave their jobs to care for children, family members and others, it means that they have left their positions in greater numbers and most have not been recruited back.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to the increased importance of CyberSecurity in general. With more people moving to a work-from-home position and adopting new technologies to work and live, it has opened us up to new threats. It was the opinion of panelist speakers that these threats would be better approached and solved with a gender and background diverse team who can come up with collective and creative solutions that draw on a variety of experiences.

Though women have come a long way in the field of CyberSecurity and in technology fields in general, we still have a long way to go. Willis College is proud of our commitment to continuing CyberSecurity education for all, but particularly in the work that we have done to attract women to the field.

We thank everyone who spoke at, attended, or provided support for this fantastic event. We cannot wait for even bigger and better things for 2022!