Lack of women in hi-tech is a 'vicious issue' that must be solved - Female execs.

• Author: ZACHY HENNESSEY
• Published date: 27 July 2022
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Dor elaborated on the juxtaposition between the many good opportunities for women in hi-tech and the relative lack of their presence in the sector. "As well as learning technology, it's the best opportunity for getting paid," she said. "It's the best opportunity for life balance because you could work from home in all the hi-tech industry, it's the best for every reason you could think of to work in high tech – and still very few select this."

"We have an issue," she continued, and explained why she believes the current branding of hi-tech is repulsive for diverse groups of workers. "For example, in cyber, you wear a hoodie and drink a lot of coke, or the men doing it in high school are not socially acceptable," she said. These impressions make women fearful that they wouldn't be socially accepted if they were in the industry, Dor suggested.

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Besides problematic branding, the hi-tech industry offers several other hurdles for women, explained Dor, including the requirement to "opt in" in order to achieve success and the need to loudly self-advocate for themselves. "Usually, women don't do this very well," she said.

In an effort to correct these issues, Check Point runs initiatives helping young kids choose hi-tech and mentoring women to speak up for themselves and pursue promotion. "In the end, if you had a whole list of [mid-level employees] that are women, maybe that would help as well," she said.

"Cyber security is obviously one of the biggest trends in the Israeli eco-system, as attackers become more sophisticated, so will our solutions be more effective and comprehensive," said Badian.

"Half of all engineers in Microsoft Israel R&D are focused on cyber security products and bring innovation to that field, so we can be prepared for the threats of the future," she added.

"Another big trend we see on the rise is climate tech, I'm confident we will see the Israeli entrepreneurial spirit tackle this important issue and we hope to see more and more technological solutions for what might be one of the biggest challenges facing us all," she concluded.

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