The European Union’s dedicated Women in Cyber Taskforce has published its inaugural annual report, which highlights a dramatic transformation in gender representation across the sector. The report reveals a 300% increase in the number of women occupying mid-to-senior cybersecurity leadership positions across Europe since 2020. This exceptional growth is attributed to a combination of proactive measures, including the introduction of aggressive diversity mandates by corporations, the widespread adoption of specialized scholarship programs, the normalization of remote-work flexibility across the EU, and a significant rise in female enrollment in dedicated cyber bootcamps and university master’s programs.
Despite this major progress in leadership visibility and entry-level participation, the report confirms several persistent systemic challenges. These include noticeable salary gaps compared to male counterparts, severely limited access to high-quality mentorship, and slower promotion rates, particularly within highly technical and specialized areas such as incident response and security engineering. These barriers threaten to undermine the long-term sustainability of the recent gains.
To address these continuing issues and sustain the momentum, the taskforce has issued strong policy recommendations. These include implementing mandatory transparency requirements for cyber role pay scales across the EU and substantially expanding EU-funded mentorship networks. These reforms are deemed critical to ensuring not only that women enter the field but also that they achieve equitable career progression and pay parity, ultimately strengthening Europe’s entire cyber resilience by tapping into a wider talent pool.
