"Lean in," says Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in her best-selling 2013 book of the same name, which advises women on how to shatter glass ceilings in tech and other male-dominated industries. But, as any woman in tech will tell you, the challenges today are daunting.

The numbers say a lot, especially in a field where there is a gigantic skills shortage: According to the recently released InformationWeek IT Salary Survey, women comprise only 14% of security staff positions, just 10% of management roles, and female managers earn about $27,000 less than their male counterparts.  

Even more disconcerting is research from the Center for Talent Innovation, which reports that while roughly 50% of STEM program graduates are women, women working in high-tech fields are 45% more likely than their male peers to leave the industry within a year of entering it.

In our next episode of Dark Reading Radio on Wednesday, June 11, 2014 at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT), I’ll be leading a panel discussion about the challenges and opportunties for women in IT security. In addition to the issues of the gender gap and pay equity, we'll be talking about the psychic rewards of a career in the security field -- things like learning, camaraderie, and fighting the good fight. Our panelists will also share some of their hard-earned wisdom about how to get ahead in a man's world.

Let me tell you a little bit about our guest speakers:

Lysa Myers began her tenure in malware research labs in the weeks before the Melissa virus outbreak in 1999. Over the years, Lysa has worked both within antivirus research labs, finding and analyzing new malware, and within the third-party testing industry to evaluate the effectiveness of security products. As a Security Researcher for ESET, she currently focuses on providing practical analysis and advice of security trends and events.

Marisa Fagan is a community manager at Bugcrowd where she oversees 7,000 security researchers. Before that, Marisa was a member of the Facebook product security team responsible for the Facebook Bug Bounty, and she managed penetration testing and research projects at Errata Security. Marisa is a co-founder of the Bay Area hacker con, BayThreat, in Mountain View, Calif.

Kerstyn Clover  is a consultant on the SecureState Attack and Defense Team, where she works with a broad range of organizations across a variety of industries on security assessments including incident response, forensic analysis, and social engineering.

I hope you’ll join us on Wednesday for what promises to be an exciting discussion about opportunities in the security industry from the vantage point of three professional women with stellar resumes and a passion about their work. You can post your comments below or bring them to the Dark Reading radio studio. I look forward to seeing you there.