Diana Initiative 2020 - Juliet Okafor - Reclaiming Your Space in Cyber Security: Speak Out, Speak...
Channel: The Diana Initiative
Date: 04/09/2020

Diana Initiative 2020 - Juliet "Jules" Okafor - Reclaiming Your Space in Cyber Security: Speak Out, Speak Up, Speak Often

There is a great global discussion happening about the ways in which systemic racism and gender bias reveal themselves across various aspects of our society. From #BlackLivesMatter to #Me too to #Timesup, there is a massive movement on the part of large swaths of American citizens that incremental progress is no longer enough. Americans seems ready for a sweeping change in the very definition of what America is, what we truly value and who the beneficiaries should be of a long-broken system. 
This public discourse is visceral, its uncomfortable and its disruptive. But it is necessary. It was unavoidable. Women, minorities, and other marginalized groups now have growing public support to transform discourse into action, draft new policies, and advance new ways for our society continues tovalue difference – across the board. More of them today are choosing to “Speak Out, Speak Up and Speak Often” in advocacy for more control over their lives. 
The Cybersecurity industry acts as a microcosm of the broader society in which it sits. Therefore, it is not exempt from the same demand for a revolution – a change in the way women are treated, minorities are kept out, and the responsibility for diversity and inclusion is placed on the victims of the treatment over and over again. The first black or female employee in any security team is the one who “breaks the boundaries”, therefore innately a change agent. But we all as an industry have to make space for those who are different. We must allow them to use their unique voice and value them as equals. It now the time for action. 
The purpose of this talk will be to discuss the responsibility of the cyber security industry to move over, open doors and make space for more women and minorities to “Speak Up, Speak Out and Speak Often”.