We at CyberSN pride ourselves on our success in creating equitable and diverse work environments both internally and with our clients. Diversity is a result of inclusive cultures and we are super thankful for the leadership from our Founder and CEO Deidre Diamond, a woman who has been a wonderful ally to all genders and created amazing work cultures that women can thrive in. Deidre had the opportunity to share a keynote at the Ally of the Year awards during RSA 2022, she decided to write a poem called “Why Do I Need an Ally?” Due to many requests, we are formally sharing it with all of you.
Thank you for all you do to create inclusive behaviors at CyberSN and Secure Diversity.org!
I am a woman from a privileged life
Why do I need an ally?
1 in 4 girls are molested as a child
Why do I need an ally?
1 in 6 women are victims of rape
Why do I need an ally?
Money buys health and safety and yet only 11% of billionaires are women
Why do I need an ally?
Women are said to be equal and yet there are laws that govern their bodies
Why do I need an ally?
Women are said to have equal employment opportunities and yet men dominate the power seats
Why do I need an ally?
Women are said to be safe at work and yet 28% of women working in male dominated professions reported sexual harassment
Why do I need an ally?
I am a woman
And I now know I need allies.
I was molested for years as a child and a teenager
I needed allies to heal.
I dreaded school because I was fat, my body’s natural way of protecting me
I needed allies to see me through school so I had a chance at health and safety.
I was 9 when my sister committed suicide due to her years of sexual abuse
I needed allies to convince me life can be good.
I was told I can’t be an attorney because I must get married and have children
I needed allies to encourage me to provide for myself and graduate college.
I see my sisters having less opportunity than I, especially those sisters of color
I need allies to lift up my broken heart.
I live in a society with laws that harm myself and my sisters
I need allies to fight against injustice.
I am a woman
I have created a socioeconomic power that grants me safety.
I am a woman
Two entrepreneurial men hired me out of college and provided me with an opportunity in tech and cybersecurity for 21 years.
I am a woman
LUCKY to be of the 15% who are truly given equal opportunity and support at work.
I am a woman
Who represents 2.3% of women who are the sole founders of a tech company.
I am a woman
Who represents the less than 1% of women who have self funded and solely founded a tech company.
I am a woman
I needed allies every step of the way.
I am a woman
I long for a day when no human needs allies.
I am a woman
I pray that the generations to come will be allies to each other regardless of gender.
Until that day, join me, join us, be an ally, stand up for equality, fight for equality and be equality
For if you don’t, my story will be just a rare LUCKY story to be told on stages like this.
This is why I need an ally.
Deidre Diamond
For more information on our diversity and inclusion values, please visit Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - CyberSN
If you were at the RSA Conference 2020 this year in San Francisco, you may have caught Deidre Diamond’s presentation on talent exfiltration and the keys to retaining top cybersecurity employees. Deidre has appeared as a RSAC speaker in the past and this year was recognized by the event as a top rated speaker.
The recognition is reserved for only a handful of top individual or co-presenters who receive an attendee feedback score above a 4.3 (out of 5) at two or more conferences. It’s also evidence that Deidre’s take on the cybersecurity hiring process and worker retention is resonating with those in the industry. Like Deidre, many in cybersecurity believe the hiring process is broken and are looking for ways to make the process easier and less painful for both those hiring and those looking for a job.
You can watch her presentation, “Talent Exfiltration: An Insider’s Guide to the Talent Attack Life Cycle” here, or check out Diamond’s key takeaways here.
With more than 20 years leading technology and cybersecurity organizations, Deidre is considered a leader in the industry and is active in tackling issues that matter most to those in cyber. She founded CyberSN in 2014 with the goal of transforming employment searching and is also the founder of Secure Diversity. The organization aims to empower all genders, specifically women, to find career opportunities in cybersecurity.
It’s going to be a great year for diversity at RSA Conference 2016! Several crowd sourced sessions and speaker topics are scheduled which will prompt discussions around the issue of the lack women in tech and cybersecurity. These topics, along with groups and panels, seem to show that this issue is going mainstream at #RSAC this year. CyberSN and #brainbabe both have a vested interest in seeing the diversity conversation come to the forefront at tech conferences, RSA in particular, because the name of our not-for-profit organization www.brainbabe.org was born out of a frustration that booth babes still exist. These “babes” are a large percentage of the women at tech conferences, and yet the discussion about their presence so far has been about “banning” their outfits (a subject we wrote about last year), rather than recruiting and training them, which would help us expand the amount of women in technology professions! You can read more about this subject in “Why #brainbabe,” a blog by Deidre Diamond, Founder and CEO of CyberSN and Founder of Brainbabe.org.
Within our own company, we are seeing an awesome swell of support surrounding the topic of women in tech and cybersecurity. For the second year, RSA held public voting on Crowdsourced Submission Topics to round out their schedule with topics from the cybersecurity community, and the call for speakers was open to the public. From all the submissions received, the judges chose 35 of them to compete for 17 speaking spots and Deidre’s talk was chosen as a finalist. Since a version of this article was originally published, she has officially been selected to speak! Her talk “From pigtails, to prom, to a cyber career: what about your daughter?” will be shared at RSA Conference 2016 on Tuesday March 1 in Room 130 North from 1:10-2:00pm. If you plan on attending the conference, we hope you will check it out. Deidre will be speaking about encouraging women to consider careers in tech that they otherwise might not think about choosing. A major obstacle in getting more people into tech is the perception that one must be technical to be a part of the profession–but the major of all cybersecurity roles are actually not technical. We can empower more people to join the community by expanding our definition of what it means to be “in tech.” Her inclusion in the program, by popular demand, proves that people are seeking out topics about how and why we can empower women in cyber security.
If you are looking for ways to join the diversity conversation while at RSA this year, here are some suggestions:
In closing, I must also highlight a group called Equal Respect, which is “a grass root initiative that promotes open and respectful environments at professional events,” that is planning to have a presence at RSA this year. They call for events that, “prohibit and discourage promotional or marketing behaviors that disrespect groups of attendees based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or ethnicity,” and we at CyberSN.com and Brainbabe.org are proud to be co-sponsors of their presence at RSA Conference 2016. It is groups like Equal Respect that will help raise awareness and overcome the obstacles that are keeping more women from joining the cybersecurity community.
