Women’s Equality Day provides an opportunity to celebrate progress, but female technology leaders argue that genuine equality depends on everyday decisions about sponsorship, flexibility, education, responsibility and who holds real authority.
Women’s Equality Day may provide a focal point for conversations about inclusion, but women working across technology, cybersecurity and business leadership say progress must extend beyond annual campaigns and symbolic representation.
For many female leaders, equality is measured by what happens throughout the year: who receives the difficult assignments, whose name is mentioned when opportunities arise, who controls budgets and whether women can build careers without sacrificing responsibilities outside work.
Susan Odle, CEO, StorMagic, believes women can advance equality in different ways. While some become activists, she sees her contribution as creating a visible example of what female and minority leadership can achieve.
“I think my role as a woman and visible minority is just to show up, do the work, produce the results and create the reference point for women in business,” she said.
Odle argued that women should support equality in ways that are authentic to their personalities and professional lives, rather than feeling compelled to adopt a public role that cannot be sustained.
“Women need to be true to themselves in their narrative supporting women. It’s the only way to sustain it over a career,” she said. “You’ll exhaust yourself if you put on a skin that is false to who you are. We all have roles to play. Play it well and create the proof points for those around us.”
Her emphasis on visible proof points is echoed by Leanne Taylor, CEO, Syspro, who believes career progression frequently depends on influential people advocating for talented women when they are not present.
Taylor has spent more than 25 years in enterprise technology and was often one of only a few women participating in senior decision-making. She said the people who had the greatest effect on her career were those who recognised her ability and actively sponsored her for opportunities.
“The things that made the greatest difference were people who backed me, said my name when I was not in the room and sponsored me for opportunities because they knew I was talented, capable and driven,” she said.
Taylor now tries to provide that support to other people, particularly women whose achievements are not receiving sufficient recognition. This can mean recommending someone for a larger role, drawing attention to their work or encouraging them to pursue an opportunity they might otherwise overlook.
“It has to be intentional because it will not happen by accident,” she said. “On Women’s Equality Day, I encourage everyone to think of one woman who deserves more than they are currently getting and do something about it this week.”
Making invisible responsibilities visible
Alongside sponsorship and recognition, workplace flexibility remains an important part of equality, particularly for women balancing professional responsibilities with caring roles.
Mena Coticelli, Account Director, Theorem, said her working day frequently begins long before she enters the professional environment and continues after formal working hours have ended.
“I joke that before my professional day even begins, I have already clocked into my first job as a mom, and when work wraps up, I clock right back in,” she said. “At any given moment, someone is counting on me to make breakfast, build a thoughtful strategy, give advice, show empathy or simply be present.”
Although Coticelli and her husband share responsibilities at home, she said much of the work performed by women remains unseen. Equality must therefore account for the demands women manage beyond their formal job descriptions.
Her perspective has also been shaped by her mother, who left employment after having children. Coticelli said her mother believed she might have remained in the workforce if the flexibility available to some women today had existed at the time.
“In my professional life, I have seen what trust, empathy and real flexibility can make possible for women with full lives outside of work,” Coticelli said.
For employers, flexibility should not be treated as a concession. It can determine whether experienced women remain in the workforce, continue developing their careers and progress into leadership.
“To me, equality means creating workplaces where women do not have to choose between their careers and the people they love, and where they have not only a seat at the table, but the opportunity to lead from the head of it,” she added.
Confidence in a changing technology market
Equality also depends on whether women can access the education and confidence needed to pursue new careers as technologies and employment requirements evolve.
Lata Bavisi, President of EC-Council University, said women can place unnecessary barriers in front of themselves by believing they must possess every qualification before applying for an opportunity.
“When I think about Women’s Equality Day, I think about the moment before a woman raises her hand,” she said. “Quite honestly, as women, we can be very hard on ourselves. We tell ourselves we need every qualification and every answer. I like to call it the ‘perfection syndrome’.”
Bavisi experienced that uncertainty when moving from law into education. The transition required her to abandon familiar habits, learn a new field and accept the risks associated with changing direction.
Those risks ultimately led her towards work that transforms lives and demonstrated the importance of confidence in career development.
Modern careers are becoming longer and less linear, she argued. Women may take breaks, return to employment, enter a different profession or begin a new chapter at 40, 50 or later. Rather than starting again, they bring established experience and judgement into new roles.
Equality must consequently include lifelong learning and flexible routes into emerging careers. This is particularly important as Artificial Intelligence reshapes cybersecurity and creates new jobs requiring a combination of technical and human expertise.
“Cybersecurity needs technologists, but it also needs people who understand law, ethics, education, business, governance and human behaviour,” Bavisi said.
Employers and educators can support women by recognising transferable abilities rather than assessing candidates solely through conventional career histories. They must also examine who receives encouragement and who is trusted with meaningful responsibility.
“My message to women considering this field is to stop waiting for perfect,” Bavisi said. “Your biggest accessory is going to be your confidence. Take the opportunity and keep learning. A different background can be a strength.”
Nicole Colehamer, Head of Global Solutions Architecture, Vonage, shares the belief that women do not need to begin their technology careers with every answer. Increasing female participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics starts by demonstrating that there is no single route into the sector, she said.
“Women’s Equality Day is a reminder of how important it is to help more women and girls see that a future in STEM is possible,” Colehamer said. “That starts with showing that there is no single path into technology and no one type of person who can be successful.”
Technical careers are not built solely on formal qualifications or narrowly defined technical abilities. Curiosity, creativity, communication and a willingness to continue learning can be equally important.
Women may already possess valuable skills and perspectives, Colehamer said, even if they have not previously imagined themselves working in a STEM role. Helping them recognise the relevance of those qualities can encourage more women to explore technical careers.
Those already established in technology also have a responsibility to make the sector feel more accessible. Mentoring, sharing personal career stories and encouraging women to pursue unfamiliar opportunities can all contribute to a more inclusive professional environment.
“Sometimes a simple vote of confidence can make a meaningful difference – especially for someone questioning whether they belong,” Colehamer said.
Visibility remains essential. When women and girls see female technologists solving complex problems, developing products and leading technical teams, it becomes easier for them to imagine building similar careers.
“The more women see other women solving complex problems, building technology and leading technical teams, the easier it becomes to imagine themselves doing the same,” Colehamer said. “My message to women considering STEM: stay curious, ask questions and give yourself permission to learn as you go. You don’t need to have every answer before you begin.”
Authority, not appearances
For Marsha Espinosa, Chief Strategy Officer, Securin, representation is only the beginning. Organisations must examine whether women in leadership positions possess genuine decision-making authority.
“I’ve sat in enough meetings to know the difference between a room that includes women and a room where women’s decisions actually stick,” she said.
Espinosa has frequently been the only woman at the table, but she has also worked for female leaders including US Representative Linda Sánchez, the late Senator Dianne Feinstein and Kristie Canegallo.
The lesson she draws from those experiences is that companies should look beyond how many women appear in meetings or feature in corporate communications.
“Instead of just celebrating the women on the team, look at who’s actually running the roadmap, the budget, the breach response,” Espinosa said.
Women should not continually have to demonstrate that they deserve to participate, she added. The conversation should move from ‘prove you belong here’ to ‘obviously you belong here – now go build something’.
Boryana Borisova, Vice President of Product, C3, similarly believes equality requires women to be trusted with consequential work and given the authority to deliver it.
Some of the most important opportunities in Borisova’s career arose when leaders asked her to solve difficult problems. Her work on Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification began as a research assignment but expanded into a much larger responsibility.
She had to interpret the requirements, assemble expertise from across the company and move the programme from research and strategy into implementation and daily operations. The experience allowed her to develop genuine expertise because she had both responsibility and the authority to make decisions.
“For women in technology, equality means having access to those same opportunities,” Borisova said. “Give women meaningful problems to solve, room to make decisions and accountability for the outcome. Then recognise them for the expertise and results they build along the way.”
That approach must become part of organisational culture rather than remaining confined to a particular programme, awareness day or diversity initiative.
Leaders have an important role in creating the conditions in which women can produce exceptional work. That includes providing support when assignments become difficult and ensuring both the results and the people responsible for them are visible.
“When organisations do that consistently, they build stronger teams, stronger products and more leaders,” Borisova said.
Collectively, these experiences show that equality in technology cannot be achieved through representation alone. It requires sponsorship, flexibility, access to education, authentic role models and a willingness to entrust women with decisions that materially affect an organisation.
Women’s Equality Day can draw attention to those priorities, but the real test comes afterwards: in the assignments leaders allocate, the names they recommend, the flexibility they permit and the authority they are prepared to share.
