"We in fact reached out to several female creators to participate in this year's AoC, some of them declined due to prior commitments, and others did not respond despite follow-up emails," the spokesperson said. "We recognise we should have communicated this context better." Confirming this, ethical hacker and university advisor Katie Paxton-Fear responded to a post highlighting the lack of representation, saying she was among the women TryHackMe contacted, but couldn't make it.
When I began Cyber Girls First (CGF) in 2014, the figures produced by the industry showed that out of the total employees in the computer and cyber workforce, 8% were women. Eleven years later, the industry has grown exponentially, with 20% of the total being women. They are coming from a variety of backgrounds - graduates in computer science, those who are changing careers, and graduates from sponsored apprenticeships such as Cisco, Rolls Royce and the regional police forces.