The only people that scared me away (almost but I'm in Infosec so I overcame it) was the guys at cons assuming I'm "someone's girlfriend". Until I realized, it's up to me to just ignore that mess and have the courage to just speak up and be myself. I felt at first like I had to 'act like a guy' or like one of the guys to fit in and realized after awhile I didn't. I do think many young women can feel this way, like they have to adapt in ways to fit into a field. There is a lot of egoism in Infosec that thankfully, I'm noticing, seems to be going away these days. While I feel the author meant well, it is a discussion overall worth having if people even want more women in Infosec. I see it improving by leaps and bounds though.

I'm female and actually in the field.. we don't need an emotional connection any more than a man does. To see a fellow female passionately talking about what she loves about technology is very inspiring to me and empowering, that alone. No words need to be changed. I think the message needs to be "Hey, you can wear skirts, be yourself and still like science and tech" from women to women. As far as men, they don't need to "help" us get interested. I was always in tech but got interested in Infosec because my former coworker (who is still my good friend) a guy, told me about it and how passionate he was. It rubbed off, but my own reasons for loving it are different. His are for "conquering knowledge", mine are for "protecting people" and I find it creepy and fascinating what "bad guys can think of next". I feel like Infosec is just isolating PERIOD. There are one or two of us in an organization, if you are lucky. We need to come together not the opposite, the gender separation is annoying. Let's talk about what we are passionate about in the field, that ignites people.