At 11 percent, women around the world are underrepresented in the cybersecurity profession, much lower than the representation of women in the overall global workforce, according to “The 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study: Women in Cybersecurity.”

Other key findings include:

• Globally men are four times more likely to hold C- and executive-level positions, and nine times more likely to hold managerial positions than women.

• 51 percent of women report various forms of discrimination in the cybersecurity workforce

• Women who feel valued in the workplace have also benefited from leadership development programs in greater numbers than women who feel undervalued.

• In 2016 women in cybersecurity earned less than men at every level.

In North America, women comprise 14 percent of the cybersecurity workforce, the highest regional concentration in the world, according to the report. Nevertheless, with the population balance of women to men for working age adults falling at essentially 50/50, women remain under-represented in North America. For example, females in the United States comprised 48 percent of the workforce.

“What is clear is that enterprise and government efforts to attract and retain more women in the global cybersecurity profession have not made a meaningful impact,” the researchers write. “The stagnation of women’s participation in the workforce is noteworthy because the workforce gap continues to grow.”

Frost & Sullivan projections show the gap between available qualified professionals and unfilled positions will widen to 1.8 million by 2022.

The Global Information Security Workforce Study is conducted every two years by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education and ISC. The most recent worldwide study was conducted from June 22 through

September 11, 2016. The online survey gauged the opinions of 19,641 information security professionals from 170 countries regarding trends and issues affecting their profession and careers.

See the full report here.