Resilient Paths: How Women in Tech Navigate Challenges and Succeed

But while articulating these challenges, the women on stage at Splunk’s .conf24 Women in Tech breakfast panel last month also shared stories of resilience, leadership, and collective efforts to foster inclusivity that addressed challenges and highlighted women actively shaping the future of technology.

From persisting in their career journey, to advocating for their worth and qualifications to mentoring other young people following in their footsteps, here are three of the biggest lessons they learned and imparted from their experiences. 

Women consistently persist to lead

When asked if they set out to become CISOs and technology executives, .conf24 women panelists said their career path was often a jagged line from the start. When she was young, Stephanie Franklin-Thomas, Global Vice President and CISO of medical device manufacturer Medtronic, didn’t even consider that a career in technology was possible. “Back when I was going to school, there was no STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics),” she said. “And so I didn’t really think about going into tech.’”

At least at first. But with persistence, she did — Franklin-Thomas’ career path included becoming the first CISO of ABM Industries. And her list of accolades includes being named to the 2023 Top Global CISOs, shortlisted on the 2023 Women in IT Awards for Security Leader of the Year, named 2023 ISE West Executive of the Year, and listed as one of the top 50 Women to Watch for Boards finalist — all before landing her most recent role as CISO of Medtronic.

Similarly, and perhaps not surprisingly, “persistent” is something Shena Newman, Associate Director of Enterprise Observability at Humana, regularly uses to describe herself throughout her IT career. “In my career, I’ve had to be persistent continuously,” she said. Unlike many of her peers, Newman noted, she doesn’t have a college degree. Instead, she decided to leave her university studies and start her career in banking insurance. But having different qualifications didn’t stop her. Instead, taking a non-traditional path into the technology field gave her the agility and flexibility to try out new roles to determine her passions and what she really wanted. And her transferable skills continue to pay off throughout her career. 

“I don't care if it says that I need my master's degree or PhD, if I believe that I can do a job, where I can apply experiences or my work in other roles, I'm going to apply for it,” she said. This philosophy drove Newman to work her way up through banking and insurance before finally landing her current position.“What I learned was that I was a problem solver. And that’s what we do in technology: we solve problems. We make our world better,” Newman said. “That was my drive to continue to move forward in technology.”

Self-advocacy can open doors and shatter glass ceilings 

For women, the road to becoming a leader is often defined by climbing over walls and breaking through barriers to achieve the positions they want and the recognition they deserve.   

And it requires continuous self-advocacy. Jaime Noble, CISO at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, learned this first-hand when she started her career at the U.S. Census Bureau, and she found herself overlooked in favor of her male counterparts for a management role in the Certification and Accreditation Program that would oversee a project creating a risk management framework. “While I was instrumental in designing the program, I was left out when it came to deciding who would lead it,” she said.

“I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t being seen for the role when I had the overall vision and ideas to make the program successful. The next morning, I went into my boss's office and said, ‘I’d really like to be considered for this position. I know I have what it takes to make this program successful.’” In Jaime’s case, the advocacy paid off, and she secured the position as the Certification and Accreditation Program Manager.

Like Noble, Newman had to advocate for herself in the face of rejection — when she expressed interest in an IT mentorship specializing in phone systems to her male boss, “He said, 'You’re really great at being my administrative assistant,’ And I replied, 'And I’m going to make a really great phone systems engineer,’” she said. “Because of that, I used it as fuel to prove him wrong.”

Since then, Newman used each setback as motivation to aim increasingly higher in her career for new, challenging roles. “Every time I face adversity or apply for a new position, I believe in my ability to learn and excel,” she reflected. Likewise, Noble asserts that self-advocacy is key to achieving your goals. “You know, we all have allies in men and our women cohorts, but you also have to remember that you have to be your own advocate,” Noble echoed.“You need to stand up for what you want and what you believe in.”

Allyship and mentorship pave the way for future generations

Advancing in the tech industry as a woman isn't just about overcoming barriers—it's also about uplifting others and paving the way for future generations through mentorship, community advocacy, and creating a more inclusive industry.Panelists said that women in technology leadership positions are role models that inspire future generations of young women who want to lead teams and organizations. 

Panelists asserted that surrounding yourself with a strong network of allies is crucial when you’re moving forward in your career, although Franklin-Thomas maintained that it wasn’t until she became an ally herself that she realized she had “a couple of people pushing me along the way.” 

“I didn’t realize I was being lifted up, whether by men or women; I thought they were just doing their jobs. It’s not until you’re sitting in the CISO seat that you realize you have to do the same,’ she said. “I had a lot of phone calls to go back and make to thank them for that.”

Future opportunities for women, however, will depend on creating a work environment that’s accessible and inclusive for all. In addition to ensuring young girls and women have visible role models in cybersecurity, it also means recognizing conscious and unconscious biases and being intentional about creating more equitable hiring environments. 

Newman said in addition to creating job fairs in underserved communities, that also means being aware of factors like public transportation so that people can get there and back safely. Those considerations require representation on your hiring team to understand what women, people of color, and marginalized communities might experience so they’re not unintentionally being excluded from opportunities. 

“I believe that organizations, whether you are a tech company, or are a nonprofit company, you have to be intentional, and make sure that you have a more diverse hiring team,” Newman said. “In my role as a community advocate in the city of Louisville, where we struggle in our public education systems, it is important for me when I'm out there in the community, working with leaders to say how can we come together on gender achievement and make progress?”

Progress is happening, panelists said, albeit it’s often incremental and sometimes erratic. “I do see changes, but it’s always in pockets. I think a lot of that is the individual, not the organization. It’s on us to step up into those roles,” said Franklin-Thomas.

But going forward, mentorship will be critical to effect meaningful change, especially for young women entering science and technology fields. It’s why Newman volunteers as a trainer and consultant at KepTraining, an organization that provides affordable certification training in Agile and security to anyone interested in learning, regardless of education level. 

“In the industry, my role is to mentor young women who may have similar journeys, because what I want them to know is that what they're experiencing presently is not what their future is going to be,” she said. “The opportunities are endless.”

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