The Listening Post focuses on the experiences of women in the national security space. This new column is a collection of stories, interviews, and profiles of women who have pioneered change, exhibited strength and inspired others.
We recently spoke with Lauren Buitta, founder and CEO of Girl Security, an organization dedicated to educating and mentoring high school girls interested in national security careers. Lauren began her own career in national security in 2003 as a policy analyst and managing editor with the 25-year old Chicago-based national security think tank, the National Strategy Forum.
The Cipher Brief: What exactly is Girl Security, and what are you hoping to do with it?
Buitta: Girl Security (GS) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization closing the gender gap in national security through learning, training, and mentoring support for girls, ages 9+. Our goal is two-fold, really. First, we want to empower girls from diverse backgrounds across the country and the world to simply engage in security discourse given how girls are uniquely affected by various security threats. We want to empower girls to define what security means to them and their communities and translate their perspectives into security policy initiatives, education, and career pathways, and we want to build a global network of girls empowered around their security experiences. Second, we want to advance those girls interested in national security careers through college to career through mentoring, sponsorship, and training. We want to see more women in national security, more women leading as decision makers in national security, and a more inclusive security workforce.
The Cipher Brief: What is it about you or your past that led you to launch GS?
Buitta: I'm originally from Illinois. In 2003, I began working with a Chicago-based national security think tank, which was at the time one of the oldest in the nation, having been founded by a group of Chicago businessmen, including Donald Rumsfeld, in the late 70s, I believe. I was a young woman, and I had no idea what "national security" meant, despite having studied Political Science at Boston College. Over the course of that part of my career, I was overwhelmed by how little the public was privy to with respect to these critical decisions being made on their behalf in the name of national security. At this time, torture and indefinite detention were a primary focus. I also observed the continuous lack of women in the field as well as a lack of women in leadership in uniformed and non-uniformed services. After I left that position, I attended law school while working with a person who would come to be a tremendous male mentor and who recently passed away, Albert Hanna. He was a staunch advocate for civil rights and fair housing. He was filing a Whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Chicago for fraudulent misuse of federal housing dollars and needed a project manager and analyst. In furtherance of this lawsuit (which is now a federal fair housing complaint), I studied the history of Chicago's racial segregation. I knew the city was deeply segregated, having lived there, but I had never attempted to understand the multi-generational effects of systemic racism, how it becomes nearly imperceptible in systems and policies, and how a few slight changes to verbiage in a law or policy can have such profound effects. Given that nothing existed for girls in national security like STEM models and understanding that any effective shift would require a multi-generational approach, I launched Girl Security.
The Cipher Brief: What have you learned along the way?
Buitta: With respect to the organization, I have learned that there are girls who see themselves in national security early on. I have learned that people across the country really want to talk about national security and follow the relevant news closely. I have learned that notions of national security and women's role in security remain rooted and the policies and systems that continue to marginalize remain stagnated. I have learned that this field draws remarkable women whose contributions have been invaluable to our work. Personally, I have learned that I can still lead as an introvert.
The Cipher Brief: How many girls do you generally accept at a time and what kinds of experiences do they get from the program?
Buitta: As many as we can take! We continuously onboard girls to our mentor program through our annual partnerships with schools and girl youth organizations. We have over 150 mentees in our network. Importantly, we are now seeing a social pipeline build, where girls who enroll as mentees talk to their friends about their interests and then their friends register to be mentored or register for programming. This is a positive indication toward building that security discourse and expanding women's representation.
Unfortunately, the pandemic has highlighted the precise scenario we empower girls to confront - a complex security scenario with limited information and possibly no good outcomes. The good news is that girls are agents of their security every day, just by being girls. Girls are able to learn important life and career skills, like ethics, strategy, critical thinking, and logistics, in a positive learning environment with leading women in national security. For girls interested in careers, they have access to advanced trainings scaled for them by professionals and older mentees, like ethical hacking, predictive analysis, gaming, policy, and development.
The Cipher Brief: Who have been some of the mentors who have helped you along the way with the launch and support of GS?
Buitta: Where do I begin? We couldn't do this without the remarkable girls who step forward and say, "I think I'm interested in this," as well as our mentors. Individually, Suzanne Spaulding, who serves on our board, and Holly McMahon, a longtime friend and mentor, sat with me when I pitched the idea while visiting DC many years ago. When Suzanne said, 'That's a great idea," I said: Let's roll. Gina Bennett is just a remarkable human who is the OG of GS and Board Chair. Our internal team and advisors are vital, as well as Cynda Collins Arsenault who gave us our first grant. I would also note General Thomas Waldhauser (an honorary advisor) and Bill Gannon (OSAC), two men who stepped forward and said, "I believe in this." (Can I add my family?! If I get hit by the beer truck tomorrow, I feel compelled to mention while I can!)
The Cipher Brief: Why is it so important to you that there is more of an active outreach program in identifying the girls who are interested in national security as a profession?
Buitta: The number of women in this field has largely remained constant over the past thirty years, some slight ebbs and flows. Without a more active outreach program, much like STEM, we cross our fingers and hope that women stumble into national security on a whim, as I did and as many others have expressed they did too. Importantly, girls in the US and globally have invaluable security aptitudes that our world needs right now. Women, and other underrepresented groups, have (and always have) critical contributions to make in national security. Girl Security could not have been a part-time program. It's a social movement, and without it, girls will continue to watch images of rooms filled with all men making the most important decisions of our time. We fail them every time we project a false image about what it takes to secure our nation.
The Cipher Brief: What else do you really want people to know about GS?
Buitta: As an organization, we are nonpartisan. Individually, we do not impose our ideas on girls about any given policy or issue. It would achieve little other than to alienate them from the conversation and careers. But national security is some combination of law, policy and politics, and girls in our network represent diverse backgrounds and opinions. We build a supportive space for girls to explore complex ideas that frankly most adults cannot rationally discuss. We invite girls to test their presumptions and outcomes and to learn from peers with differing opinions about national security topics. Creating space in this discourse is not only vital for girls, it's vital to our democracy.
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