If the cybersecurity sector is to attract more women, better opportunities and pathways into cybersecurity roles must be created, experts say.

Women currently working in cybersecurity make up just 24% of the workforce, according to a report from the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)². While that number is growing, it’s still not enough. With the low percentage of female cybersecurity professionals, even fewer are in leadership roles. Only 7% of women reach positions such as chief technology officer, 18% are in IT director roles, and 19% reach vice president of IT positions, the (ISC)² report found.

“I think it’s pretty easy for the cybersecurity industry to recognize that there is a lack of diversity right now; it’s no longer the elephant in the room that it once was,” Kathleen Hyde, chair of cybersecurity programs at Champlain College, told Lifewire in an email interview. “Previously, the lack of diversity was rooted in the fact that many of the people who were working in careers that are now impacted by cyber or fall within its domains were men.”

The glaring reasons for the lack of diversity in the cybersecurity industry include access to opportunity, education and a greater value for diversity. All of these causes are rooted in the lack of STEM programs at the elementary school level, Victoria Mosby, federal sales engineer at Lookout, said in an email interview. Often, young girls don’t even know they have the ability to pursue a career in cybersecurity because they haven’t been exposed to the opportunities.