Women in the Defense Industry: Still Struggling?

As a woman who has spent pretty much my entire career in the defense industry, I’ve never really felt like a part of the “gender gap” arguments about females working in a male-dominated field. National security – just like the military ranks themselves – have always been male dominated. There’s often good reason for this – more men choose military service and therefore obtain defense industry jobs focused on veterans. Men are also statistically more inclined toward the types of careers that populate today’s defense industry – including IT and analysis.

Working specifically in defense industry public relations, I also saw the other side of that coin – how dominate women tend to be in the PR field, including in government and defense contracting companies.

Despite the long way women have come in establishing defense industry careers, we continue to see public debates, op eds, etc., discussing the roles women do – and don’t – play in national security issues. To draw attention to the women out there, ClearanceJobs published a survey of women in the defense industry. Check it out, and I’d love to hear from you – are women underrepresented, or just unappreciated?