1. THE ROLE AND CHALLENGES OF WOMEN IN
CYBERSECURITY
2. BACKGROUNDAND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Despite the progress made, women in cybersecurity still face unique challenges. The gender
gap, unconscious bias, and workplace culture issues can discourage women from pursuing or
advancing in cybersecurity careers. The facts that cybersecurity is still a male-dominated
industry and women have historically been discouraged from pursuing careers in technically
demanding fields can create an intimidating environment for aspiring female professionals.
The present study aimed with following objectives:
To study about women and cybersecurity.
To concise the theoretical view in role and challenges of women in cybersecurity.
To analyze various factors associated with study to draw matching conclusion for the study.
3. Literature Reviews
Egete, D. et al. (2023) have explored from their study as women and ethnic
minorities have historically been underrepresented in the cybersecurity
industry. This paper provides a framework for discussing some of the skills
that are available to women and underrepresented groups and argues for the
necessity to solve this problem. Lastly, some suggestions to remediate this
pervasive issue are also provided.
Ajgar, Amey & Ajgar, Yogita. (2022) have extracted from their study is
indicating metaverse is the future of the internet. He summarized in web 3.0
women have faced critical security issues and it’s necessary to improve
Metaverse and make it a safer technology for women.
S, Kavitha. (2021) have summarized their study as the number of internet
users in India is increasing. This research study was an attempt to understand
to what extent women users are aware of threats in cyber-space; precautions
to be taken and legal protection available to them.
4. Materials and Methods Used
Simple random sampling method was used for the study.
150 women respondents from Nagapattinam district selected
at random basis. Frequency distribution analysis, Cross-table
analysis, Chi-square analysis, Likert Scale Analysis and
Weighted Average Analysis were used for the study.
5. Key Findings and Discussion
Out of 150 women respondents the majority of the respondents i.e. 50 per cent of the
respondents are belongs to below 30 years age category, 78.70 per cent of the
respondents are married. And maximum of the respondents (34 per cent) are under
graduated, 48.70 per cent of the respondents are private employees. The majority i.e.
54 per cent of the respondents are falls under the family income category Rs. 20,001 –
Rs. 40,000 monthly. And 54 percent of the respondents are from semi-urban area.
The majority of the respondents are affecting by lack of exposure and awareness on
cybersecurity except for the respondents who are majorities in post-graduation is
affected due to gender discriminations.
There is significant relationship between marital status and educational qualification of
the respondents and challenging factors of cybersecurity among women and there is no
significant relationship between age, occupation, family income and residential
location of the respondents and challenging factors of cybersecurity among women.
6. For all the statements asked related to present status of cybersecurity for
women under various dimensions the maximum of the respondents have
opined ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’. And the statement ‘inadequate
fascination, employing, and maintenance rehearses for women in
network protection’ have secured top mean score which indicated the
fascination, employment and maintenance for women is in sufficient.
The maximum respondents given first rank for recommended
suggestion ‘organizations should implement flexible work schedules’
and the suggestion ‘focused investigation on women in cybersecurity,
encompassing data collection and dissemination on women in
cybersecurity metrics’ secured second rank and the suggestion
‘Advertisements promoting the employment of women in cybersecurity’
secured last i.e. fifteenth rank.
7. On all the statements asked related to present status on the perception of
respondents about cybersecurity, the statements absence of mindfulness
on vocation valuable open doors in cyber safety, by and large, women
have significantly added to figuring science and innovation, however their
commitments are not really recognized, online protection contests used to
draw in graduates to online protection are custom fitted for men, male
digital experts know nothing about difficulties experienced by women;
more women are expected to increment mindfulness and inadequate
fascination, employing, and maintenance rehearses for women in cyber
protection are associated with marital status of the respondents.
8. Conclusion
There is a severe lack of awareness among women about the cyber laws and what to do
further when a person becomes a victim of cybercrime. This leads to mental agony and
has many a times led to suicide attempts by victims too. So, awareness of cyber laws is
very important for women not just to avoid becoming a victim of such cybercrimes but
also reporting of cybercrimes. Another very important dimension is even today the
procedure after filing up of a cybercrime follows the very conventional methods of
investigation. Improving cybersecurity by the Government and other authorized
agencies and institutions is the need of the hour. Cyber patrolling, awareness, training
and capacity building of investigators can definitely help in curving the menace of
cybercrimes.
