Women are underrepresented in cybersecurity — and the gap is not about ability. It is about visibility, community, and access. Pethanakshi, community manager at Division Zero (Singapore’s largest cybersecurity community), is working to change that from the inside. This is what she has learnt, and what it means for women considering a career in cybersecurity in Singapore.
Who Is Pethanakshi, and Why Does Her Work Matter?
Pethanakshi is the community manager for Division Zero (Div0), a Singapore-based cybersecurity community with close to 4,000 members. She is also an active member of Tech For She, an organisation that empowers women to enter the technology industry through programmes, mentorship, and community initiatives.
Her work sits at the intersection of community building and gender inclusion — two things that directly shape whether cybersecurity becomes a realistic career option for more women in Singapore.
“Being in charge of initiatives and events is how we get our community to grow and serve our members.” — Pethanakshi, Community Manager, Division Zero
Note: Division Zero is an independent Singapore cybersecurity community. Pethanakshi is featured here as a community figure whose work aligns with CFCI’s mission of making cybersecurity accessible to everyone.
What Division Zero Actually Does
Division Zero organises a regular programme of community-facing events that bring together cybersecurity professionals, students, and career changers.
Monthly meetups are the core of the calendar. These events feature invited speakers from Singapore and internationally, covering a broad range of technical and professional topics:
- Digital forensics and incident response (DFIR)
- Purple teaming and offensive security
- Threat intelligence and security operations
- Career and community sessions
Attendance is strong — regular meetups draw 80 to 100 attendees, and special sessions with senior industry leaders have exceeded 150 people. That consistent turnout reflects a genuine hunger for community and knowledge-sharing in Singapore’s cybersecurity ecosystem.
SINCON, Division Zero’s annual conference, sits above the monthly events in scale. It features talks and hands-on workshops where attendees can develop practical skills in a focused environment.
These are not just networking functions. They are substantive technical events that give participants real learning and real connections — both of which matter enormously when you are trying to break into or grow within cybersecurity.
The Gender Gap: What Pethanakshi Sees on the Ground
The attendance numbers are encouraging. The gender split within them is not.
Pethanakshi is candid: even with strong event turnout, the proportion of women attending remains disproportionately small. This is not a Singapore-specific problem — it reflects a global pattern in cybersecurity — but it is one that Division Zero is actively trying to reverse.
“Even though I’ve reported high attendance figures for the meetup, the proportion of women in attendance is disproportionately small.”
Division Zero’s response has been practical rather than abstract. Strategies include:
- Hosting women-centred events and workshops specifically designed to be welcoming entry points
- Direct, personalised outreach to female participants and potential attendees
- Featuring more female speakers and leaders across all events, not just dedicated women-in-tech sessions
- The Women in Cybersecurity Sessions (WICS) — a dedicated programme offering hangouts, workshops, mentorship, makerspace access, and a forum for talent development
The logic behind featuring female speakers is straightforward, and Pethanakshi articulates it well:
“If we feature more females in our events and initiatives, I think it’s a good way to inspire other women to feel that, ‘This is a person I look up to; this is the person I want to be.’”
Representation functions as permission. When a woman sees another woman leading a technical talk or running a community, the implicit message is: this field is open to you too.
The Confidence Gap: A Different Kind of Barrier
Beyond structural access, Pethanakshi identifies a pattern she sees repeatedly among women considering cybersecurity: the tendency to wait until fully prepared before stepping forward.
This is sometimes called the confidence gap — a documented tendency to self-select out of opportunities because of perceived unreadiness, even when the skills and aptitude are present. It shows up as delayed applications, avoided events, courses not started.
Her advice on this is direct:
“One of the greatest things to do is to just go and make mistakes and learn from them.”
This is not generic encouragement. In cybersecurity specifically, the field is too broad and too fast-moving for anyone to feel fully prepared before they start. The professionals who progress are the ones who engage, experiment, get things wrong, and adjust. Waiting for certainty is not a viable strategy in a field built around uncertainty.
What This Means If You Are a Woman Considering Cybersecurity in Singapore
The community infrastructure that Pethanakshi and others have built lowers the entry cost considerably. You do not need to figure out cybersecurity alone, and you do not need a technical background to start engaging with the community.
A few practical entry points:
- Division Zero meetups — open to all, covering a wide range of technical topics, free to attend
- Women in Cybersecurity Sessions (WICS) — tailored support, mentorship, and community for women
- Tech For She — women-in-tech organisation with programmes and mentorship across the broader technology sector
These communities are most valuable alongside structured training. The combination — community for context and connection, structured learning for technical foundation — is what tends to produce confident, capable cybersecurity professionals.
At CFCI, 75% of graduates who secured cyber roles had no prior IT background. The cybersecurity field does not require a technical starting point; it requires the willingness to learn systematically and engage seriously with the material.
A Field That Needs More Women, Not Fewer Barriers
Singapore’s cybersecurity talent demand continues to outpace supply. Organisations across finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure are looking for skilled professionals, and the pipeline is not large enough.
Increasing female participation is not simply a diversity goal — it is a practical response to a talent gap. Women who have been told the field is not for them, or who have not yet encountered a clear pathway in, represent an enormous untapped resource.
The work that Pethanakshi and Division Zero are doing — building community, creating visibility, and actively reducing the friction for women to engage — is exactly the kind of structural change that shifts career trajectories at scale.
If you are thinking about making that switch, our guide to switching into cybersecurity with no IT background walks through the full roadmap — from first steps to first role.
Take the Next Step
If you are curious about a career in cybersecurity — whether you come from a technical background or not — the best first move is to engage with the community and explore what structured learning looks like in practice.
CFCI runs a free Cybersecurity Experiential Workshop that gives you a hands-on taste of the field before any commitment. There is also a free info session where you can ask questions, understand what the training involves, and hear from people who have made the switch.
Start at our info session page — no prior experience required, no commitment asked for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is cybersecurity a good career for women in Singapore?
Yes — cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing fields in Singapore and actively seeks diverse talent. Organisations like Division Zero and Tech For She are building communities that support women entering and progressing in the field. No prior IT background is required to start a career in cybersecurity.
How can women in Singapore get started in cybersecurity?
The most practical first step is to engage with the community — attend meetups, join organisations like Division Zero or Tech For She, and explore structured training programmes. CFCI's Cybersecurity Career Kickstart+ programme is designed for beginners with no IT background and is SkillsFuture-funded.
What is Division Zero Singapore?
Division Zero (Div0) is Singapore's largest cybersecurity community, with close to 4,000 members. It runs regular monthly meetups, workshops, and the annual SINCON conference, covering topics from digital forensics to purple teaming.
Why is representation important in cybersecurity communities?
Seeing people like yourself in leadership and speaker roles signals that the field is open to you. Research and on-the-ground experience from community leaders like Pethanakshi consistently show that visible female role models are one of the most effective ways to encourage more women to explore cybersecurity careers.