Giving Compass' Take:

• Hechinger Report discusses the rise in cybersecurity jobs, but that recruiting more women to the field has proven difficult. The problem likely comes from STEM inequities throughout early education.

• What are organizations doing to encourage more young girls to pursue math and computer engineering degrees? There is a big talent pool being neglected.

• Here are three simple ways we can #PressForProgress when it comes to women in STEM.

Employers in the United States, and countries worldwide, face a critical shortage of professionals trained in protecting corporate and government computer networks and systems from cyberattack. As these attacks grow more frequent and sophisticated, jobs in information security are expected to skyrocket. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that jobs for cybersecurity analysts in the U.S. will grow 28 percent by 2026. Currently, there are 285,681 unfilled jobs available in cybersecurity, according to CyberSeek, a website that tracks the cybersecurity job market. Globally, research indicates there will be a shortage of 1.8 million cybersecurity professionals by 2022.

Attracting and retaining qualified workers to the field — especially women — has become a critical issue across sectors, from banking to health care, aviation and government. “Can we staff up fast enough to be able to protect the power systems of the United States, the weapons systems, the financial systems? Because, right now, we do not have anywhere near enough people to do any of that,” said Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training company that created the Girls Go Cyberstart challenge. And yet, said Paller, the on-ramp for women into cybersecurity remains obstructed. “If we block entry for women, we’re blocking 50 to 70 percent of the talent,” he said. “When I walk into a high school Cisco Networking class, I’ll see 30 boys and one girl. Girls are being told loudly: ‘You are not invited.’”

Read the full article about women being locked out of cybersecurity jobs by Sarah Gonser at The Hechinger Report.