Three senior women across technology, fintech, and cybersecurity reflect on what genuine inclusion means in 2026.
Every year, the technology industry marks this moment with goodwill, visibility, and carefully worded commitments. For the women who have spent their careers inside it, the feeling is more complicated. It is pride, yes, but it is also reflection. And for many, it is a clear-eyed reckoning with how much further there still is to go.
Sonia Eland, Executive Vice President and Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand at HCLTech, has watched both sides of that story play out across her career. She has seen more women enter technical and digital roles, bringing talent, ambition, and fresh perspective into the industry. She has also seen how quickly those numbers thin out. “Too many capable women stall at mid-career, not because they lack ability, but because the pathways to leadership are often unclear, informal, and uneven,” she says.
The barrier, she argues, has never been about potential. “Progress in tech has never been limited by women’s potential. It has been limited by systems that reward visibility over contribution, familiarity over diversity, and confidence over competence. These dynamics are rarely intentional, but they are deeply embedded.”
Jessica Booth, COO at Biza.io, traces those same dynamics further back, into the financial and legal structures that shape women’s lives long before they reach any workplace. “Too often, the systems that are meant to support women and girls end up reinforcing the barriers they face. From unequal access to financial services to legal frameworks that fail to protect girls and women, systemic discrimination remains a daily reality.” Justice, she says, cannot be bolted on afterward. “Justice needs to be baked into the structures that govern our economy, our communities, and our laws.”
In fintech, she points to Australia’s Consumer Data Right as a practical example of what deliberately inclusive design looks like. By giving women-led businesses more equitable access to financial data, it can level the playing field, improve access to funding, and support more informed financial decisions. She also highlights a feature that sets the Australian model apart from open banking frameworks elsewhere in the world. “Australian CDR’s consent model supports survivors of domestic violence, allowing them to seek financial autonomy in a safe and secure way, without alerting those who may pose a risk.”
Inside cybersecurity, Melissa Bischoping, Senior Director of Security and Product Design Research at Tanium, is watching a similar pattern. The industry has made progress on diversity, she says, but the real barrier has never been policy. It has been culture. “Too many are still held back by bias, outdated expectations around caregiving, and environments that reward constant availability.” Bringing more women in, she says, means nothing if the environment they enter does not change. “It’s not enough to bring more women into tech. We have to support and retain the talent already here.”
Where Bischoping finds reason for optimism is in AI, and she speaks from personal experience. “I didn’t enter tech until I was 30, and innovations like AI are accelerating my learning and building my confidence.” Used well, she says, it can reduce burnout and help level the playing field, particularly for career changers and women returning to the workforce.
Eland makes a similar case for urgency around AI at the leadership level. With automation reshaping the way organisations operate, she says the decisions being made right now will determine whose voices shape what comes next. “Real change requires more than well-meaning policies. It demands sponsorship, transparency, and cultures that actively create space for diverse leadership.”
Booth’s conclusion is the same, just said differently. “Technology can open doors, but only if it is deliberately inclusive.”
The three perspectives arrive from different corners of the industry, but they converge on the same point. Whether it is the systems governing financial access, the cultures embedded inside security teams, or the structures determining who reaches leadership in tech, deliberate action is the only thing that moves the needle. As Eland puts it, this is “an opportunity to move beyond symbolism and commit to building an industry where women are not only present but truly empowered to lead.”
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