22
Women in the UK Intelligence Community
Attracting young
women
In addition to the valuable
programmes already being
run, there may be other
routes worth exploring to
address the lack of gender
diversity in the technical
and specialist talent pool.
For example:
1. s etting up a volunteers
programme to build
links with schools – for
example, running an
after school technology
club for girls;
2. investing in a
technology summer
camp for female
school-age students;
and
3. e stablishing a
mentoring scheme
to encourage female
undergraduate
students to apply.
Recent entrants could
be asked to mentor a
student over a tenmonth period, and run
a ‘development centre’
prior to the application
period.
“While I don’t think there were any overt gender biases in the
application process (in my case at least), we are perhaps guilty of
recruiting a ‘standard’ sort of person with a defined set of skills
(who are more likely to be men), rather than taking more risks and
recruiting from a wider range of backgrounds.”
Recent female recruit at GCHQ
23. Education outreach. GCHQ has an extensive education
outreach programme designed to promote engineering careers to
young people. GCHQ has taken a long-term approach to broadening
the talent pool, including initiatives designed to promote science,
technology, engineering and mathematics subjects in schools and
to identify and nurture young talent. We urge GCHQ to ensure that
these activities encourage girls to engage at an early age, in order
to overcome damaging perceptions that these are not subjects they
might be interested in.
“I first heard about GCHQ’s mathematician summer scheme through
an email that had been sent into our university’s maths department,
which was then forwarded to me. I hadn’t heard of GCHQ prior to
this, but the opportunity to come here for the summer, learn more
maths and use it in an applied way really appealed to me.
I don’t believe there were any biases in the recruitment process as
there were no advertisements; the email had come directly to my
university therefore I believed it to be an opportunity for me to
apply. Gender biases were not something that I considered – there
were four females out of a total of ten recruited onto the scheme.
The building itself is awe-inspiring and the work interesting and
varied. The fact that I am able to continue to expand my knowledge
in a subject area I enjoy and apply such skills to real world tasks
is the reason why at the end of my summer placement, when the
opportunity to apply for a full-time role came up, I did not hesitate
to apply. Again there was no advertisement, so I cannot comment
on any gender biases or female role models.
The department I work within is male-dominated, however I don’t
feel there is a biased nature to the culture of the organisation. I have
often been the only female in a meeting, but personally, this has
never concerned me or been an issue. I was one of around 40–50
new entrants in October 2013, of whom a number of us were female
– and four out of a total of 14 recruited for maths jobs were female.”
Recent female recruit at GCHQ
24. We were also particularly interested in the GCHQ-led Intelligence
Agency Higher Apprenticeship Scheme, launched in September 2012.
This offers its applicants the opportunity to continue their academic
study whilst earning a salary. This scheme – which all three Agencies
participate in – will help to diversify the Agencies’ workforce by
providing employment opportunities to young people from a range