Nearly 97% of security professionals want more opportunities for women: WISS 2026
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Nearly 97% of security professionals believe more opportunities should be created for women, according to the Women in Security Survey (WISS) 2026, a report that says India’s security sector has already moved beyond the awareness stage and is now being judged on whether policies are actually producing outcomes.
The survey, conducted by IIRIS and the CII Centre for Women Leadership, received 730 responses and covers a broad security ecosystem that includes physical security, corporate security, cybersecurity, risk management, business continuity, resilience, intelligence and investigations, fraud and financial crime, compliance and governance, forensics, crisis management, public safety, law enforcement, and defence and national security.
Not just a women-only view
The respondent pool was majority male. According to the report’s sample profile, 72.3% of respondents were men, 27.5% were women, and 0.1% each identified as non-binary/prefer not to say and other. That makes the findings a broader industry read, not a women-only sentiment survey.
The report also says more than 90% of respondents are within the first decade of their security careers, making the survey heavily weighted toward the next generation of security leaders.
Policies are in place, but outcomes lag
The strongest headline number in the report is simple: 96.8% of respondents said more opportunities should be created for women within security functions. The same survey found 90.3% support for an industry-wide gender parity pledge, 89.6% reporting formal DEI policy adoption, 91.2% reporting flexible work arrangements and 89.3% citing unconscious bias training.
Yet the report says the central problem is no longer awareness.
“What this report finds is that India’s security sector has completed the awareness phase of its diversity journey and has not yet entered the accountability phase,” says the foreword by Sagarika Chakraborty, CEO of IIRIS Consulting.
The report adds that the challenge is now less about proving the gap exists and more about whether organisations are actually closing it. It calls this the “accountability gap.”
Underrepresentation remains the core concern
Despite the policy framework, 84.5% of respondents still believe women remain underrepresented across security functions. The report says 74% of professionals have personally experienced or witnessed gender-based discrimination in a security workplace.
Shivani Kumar, executive director at the CII Centre for Women Leadership, says the evidence is structural.
“Real progress requires institutions themselves to change,” she writes, arguing that the sector has “strong entry pipelines, but weak leadership pipelines.”
Mentorship, not just recruitment, is the gap
When asked what would most improve women’s participation and advancement, 45.2% of respondents selected mentorship, far ahead of any other intervention. Training and certifications came next, followed by leadership development programmes and flexible work arrangements. The report says the issue is no longer simply attracting women into the profession; it is ensuring they remain, progress and ultimately lead.
It also flags workplace culture as the biggest barrier, with 39.7% citing stereotypes and male-dominated workplace cultures as the primary deterrent to women entering security careers.
Security is widening, and so are the opportunities
The report says women are increasingly present across technical and non-technical security functions, including intelligence analysis, OSINT and investigations, cyber forensics, legal and compliance roles, disaster response, risk consulting and business resilience. It argues that as the definition of security expands, the leadership challenge is not participation alone but progression into decision-making roles.
Globally, the report says India is confronting the same problem seen in mature markets: women are entering security-related professions, but representation thins sharply at senior levels. The difference, it says, is that India is building new security ecosystems even as others try to reform old ones.