The physical security industry's entire value proposition is built on the idea that the right people get in and the wrong people stay out. It is somewhat ironic, then, that the industry itself has been fairly cavalier about who gets into a career inside it.
I work in an industry that designs and deploys the systems that decide who enters a building, who carries a credential, and who is trusted with access. The technology has grown remarkably sophisticated with AI-based and biometric technologies. And yet when I look at who is building, selling, installing, and managing those systems, the workforce gap is harder to ignore.
That gap has a cost, and as the industry transforms, it is becoming harder to ignore.
Access granted, but not always for leadership
While women are well represented in the functions that connect the industry to the outside world — communications, marketing, sales — the roles closest to the product itself are where female representation drops most sharply.
Walk a trade show floor like the Security Event or ISC West, and the pattern is hard to miss. When you identify who is in installation, systems engineering, integration or technical pre-sales roles, the numbers thin out quickly. The higher the technical barrier to entry, the lower the representation.
This is not unique to physical security, but the gap here is particularly pronounced and particularly costly. The 2026 Security Megatrends report from the Security Industry Association identifies workforce development as one of the sector's most pressing foundational challenges. The industry is struggling to find qualified technical talent at every level. It is doing so while leaving a significant portion of the available pool largely untapped.
The access control problem nobody is scanning for
Physical security professionals spend considerable time thinking about entry points: where they are, who controls them and what happens when they are not properly managed. The same rigor rarely gets applied to who enters the profession itself.
The career path into physical security is not taught in any curriculumThe career path into physical security is not taught in any curriculum. There is no degree in access control integration or credentialing systems, so people often arrive from adjacent fields such as IT, electrical engineering, construction, facilities management. This lateral entry model is actually an asset, because it means the potential talent pool is far broader than the industry's traditional recruiting channels suggest.
As an industry, we need to demystify these pathways and make security feel accessible and relevant much earlier. Because if we want a stronger, more innovative workforce, we need a broader range of experiences and perspectives reaching the field, and we must be intentional about who feels invited to be part of it. Broadening the pipeline means deliberately going somewhere different: universities, STEM programmes, professional networks in adjacent industries where women are better represented.
Reading the room, across every room
One thing working across multiple geographies has taught me is that the conversation about women in professional leadership is not the same everywhere. It plays out differently in Paris than in Hong Kong, in Lisbon than in Sydney. Cultural context shapes how women present themselves in the workplace, how career progression is defined and discussed, and what entry points into an industry like security actually look like in a given market.
That is not a problem to be solved with a single global program. It is a reminder that building a more balanced workforce requires cultural intelligence, not just good intentions. The organizations making progress are the ones that take the time to listen before they act, adapt their approach to local nuance and resist the instinct to export a template.
What holds across every market is the outcome: when women are in the room, they contribute. The conditions that get them there and keep them there will look different depending on where you are.
The inflection point
The physical security industry is in the middle of a significant technology transition. Access control is evolving from a standalone hardware category into converged identity ecosystem of software, cloud platforms and AI-driven analytics. The profession is changing faster than the people pipeline feeding it. And most organizations are not monitoring that gap nearly as closely as they monitor their physical perimeters.
The newer roles lack long-standing male dominance, prompting organizations to actively recruit womenI see this transition is an opportunity. The new roles it is creating are being defined now, by the organizations hiring for them now. Unlike the industry's more established functions, these roles should not carry decades-long history of male incumbency. The organizations that understand that are actively recruiting women into technical and leadership positions. And in the process, they are also building a competitive advantage that compounds over time.
In practice, this means going earlier in the talent pipeline: think universities and adjacent industries where women already perform in technical roles. It also means building the internal infrastructure that makes staying in an organization worthwhile: think mentorship programmes, women's networks and enough operational flexibility that ensures strong performers are not forced to choose between professional ambition and personal commitments.
The industry has been remarkably successful at keeping the wrong people out. The irony is that in doing so, it has also been keeping the right ones out of its own workforce. That is a system running with a gap that’s overdue a fix. The organizations that fix it first will have the better teams and the better outcomes. The rest will have the same talent shortage in five years that they have today.
