Making our way in a field not built for us

An article inspired by Chantal Stekelenburg

On Valentine’s Day 2026, if you attended Disobey, you had the opportunity to hear an inspiring keynote that fits right with Women4Cyber Finland’s message and our goal to have a more diverse cybersecurity field. Chantal Stekelenburg took the stage and led us on a

journey to open our minds on how culturally gendered things can lead to making cyber conferences, and the field altogether, less welcoming for women and the importance of having role models to achieve more diversity. If you didn’t manage to make it to Disobey, her keynote can be found on Youtube and I really advise everyone to listen to it (reading this article can also help in getting a grasp on the topic).

Chantal Sketelenburg, who is she?

A Dutch woman who founded Women In Cybersecurity Association  (WICCA for short) in 2018, a community of women in cybersecurity in the Netherlands with the goal to inspire and empower women in the field of cybersecurity while also sharing knowledge. It was followed by the founding of WICCON, a conference for women from women with only women speakers, held for the first time in 2023.  

In her own words: “I decided to become a role model because we need more role models in cyber”, through WICCON and WICCA she seeks to inspire and achieve the ultimate goal to have 50/50 gender-based diversity at cyber conferences and in the field in general by providing visibility and support to other peers in the field.

In addition, she has been part of organising big CyberSec events like WHY2025, Defcon Holland, Hackerhotel and more. 

What inspired her to give her “This conference was not built for you” presentation at Disobey was to bring into light how many things in how cyber conferences are built are not necessarily speaking to women but more to men and her speech could be an eye-opener for many.   

“Gender is the easy topic, but we still fail at it”

A sentence that catches one’s attention and that Chantal said at the beginning of her talk. It cannot be argued that we hear a lot on the topic of gender diversity in all domains and on a daily basis. Despite having made great and visible progress on the topic in recent years, it is far from a solved matter. When women are still underrepresented in the field despite representing half of the population, achieving other types of diversities is even more complicated. 

Globally, it is estimated that women make less than 25% of the cyber workforce and this needs to be addressed and remediated. Conferences are a great window for people to see if a field is made for them or not, which is why addressing the issue from their perspective is relevant as the people we see on stage shape how we see the field.

What makes a conference “not built for you”?

When conference organisers are asked about how they pick their talks, they often state “we just pick the best talks”. In her talk, Chantal challenges the thought with the idea that many are not even submitted to begin with as “most people decide whether they belong months before the CFP opens”. The idea is not to just look for women speakers for conferences because more diversity is needed and consequently cause a “diversity hire” effect where the content of the talk is not even relevant but only the gender of the speaker. The idea is to ensure more women feel welcome to submit their presentation in the first place.

While colours and words are not gendered by nature, we, as a society, have culturally gendered them. When growing up, girls are often associated with light colours, pinks and purples while boys are taught to like dark colours, blues and greens.  Girls are complimented with phrases like “you look adorable”, “you are so helpful” and boys with “you are so brave”, “what a great tower you have built”. Girls have been taught to play with dolls while boys were introduced to tools and techy stuff. But how does that relate to conferences you may wonder? 

If you check the colour scheme of conference pages, it often aligns with the colour scheme boys are thought to like and what we, as a society, perceive as more masculine. Vocabulary used when looking for speakers often highlights the need for strong expertise, deep technical knowledge and high confidence. However, women suffer a lot from imposter syndrome and are often more perfectionist and may not submit their presentations if they are expected to be experts in a domain when they don’t perceive themselves as such. 

How to get more CFPs from women? 

In her talk, Chantal did not only highlight the issues in current CyberSec conference cultures but she also gives potential solutions for them. Instead of using terms like “rockstar speaker”, “deep technical talks”, etc. use more terms like “all experience levels welcome”, “we value your view on the topic”. It really does make a difference when we are told that we don’t need to be an expert and that it is our own view on a specific topic that matters and is valuable in itself. Highlighting that perfection is not expected and that practical lessons and failures are encouraged, after all, we cannot learn and become experts without trial and error.  

If you are a conference organiser, you need to connect and approach potential women speakers in the same way you would approach and connect with any other speaker. You can connect and approach them for example by attending WICCON where there are only women speakers, Women4Cyber foundation also has the She Speaks Cyber platform which helps in connecting with leading Women Cybersecurity Speakers in Europe. Another way is by contacting local communities, for example us, Women4Cyber Finland, to find women to speak at your conferences or events. 

Considering that a great majority of the population does not feel comfortable speaking in public, providing support and mentoring for new speakers is crucial to ensure more diversity in speakers when women already represent a minority in the field altogether. 

Finally, to ensure you really pick the best talks and are not biased by a name or a background when selecting speakers, start the selection process with a blind review with no information on the speaker available and only after that first selection proceed with a selection including the speaker's details. In such a way, you can ensure more diversity and see who may need support or early check-ins while avoiding topic overlaps and enough balance in them. 

Diversity can be achieved through role models

It is a repetitive but factual message which is why I kept it for the end of this article. In her talk, Chantal says that 60% of women in STEM have been inspired by a role model, 64% for women working in tech. We, as women, need to feel welcome in the field and when one of us takes the stage to show we have a place in here, it makes a difference and shapes a more diverse future for cybersecurity, conferences included. By providing support and mentoring for women to feel comfortable enough to speak on stage or to overall join the field, we pave the way for a more diverse cybersecurity field in the future. We are all part of the change and together we can achieve it, one step at a time.

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Text: Varpu Huhtinen, W4CFI Articles