Ilse Ramon (she/her) is a Master’s student in Cybersecurity Risk Management at Georgetown University, where she serves as President of the Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) Georgetown Chapter. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting and currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of the Georgetown Mexican Association. Her academic and professional interests include data privacy, cyber policy, digital governance, and risk management, with a strong commitment to fostering inclusive and equitable approaches to digital transformation. As a Digital Ambassador at the World Bank, she promotes an inclusive and sustainable digital transformation in the Latin America Region. As a Mexican woman in cybersecurity—a field still dominated by men—Ilse is passionate about advancing gender equity in technology. Her grandparents are from a rural village in Tabasco, and her mother was the first in their family to attend college. Their perseverance inspired Ilse’s drive to create opportunities for future generations of women. Having personally experienced sexism in sports, the Navy, and the tech industry, she aims to uncover and challenge the invisible systems that perpetuate exclusion.
Uncovering the Invisible Barriers: The Truth Behind Mexico’s STEM Gender Gap
Despite Mexico’s growing demand for STEM professionals, women remain significantly underrepresented, especially in cybersecurity, a field critical to national development and security. My project explores the structural, cultural, and social barriers that prevent Mexican women from entering, remaining, and leading in STEM fields. Using an intersectional feminist framework, I investigate how normalized sexism, cultural expectations, economic inequality, and self-perception intersect across different regions, classes, and communities. This study seeks to build pathways for inclusion and leadership. At the heart of this research are several main questions: What hidden factors continue to exclude women from STEM and cybersecurity in Mexico? How do geography, class, ethnicity, and access to education shape women’s experiences and self-perception in these fields? What common barriers unite women across different contexts, and what unique challenges emerge for Indigenous, rural, or low-income communities? Finally, what forms of leadership can women exercise within these spaces to challenge systemic exclusion and redefine the digital future through a gender-just perspective? Rooted in the belief that gender equity is both a matter of justice and national progress, this research promotes women’s leadership as a transformative force in technology and policy. By collaborating with public institutions, private companies, and civil society, the project By centering women’s voices and lived experiences, I aim to translate research into impact by empowering a new generation of women to shape Mexico’s digital future through inclusion, justice, and leadership.