Talent shortages have become a universal issue in the semiconductor industry worldwide. In Taiwan's ecosystem, the gender ratio imbalance is severe. Leading semiconductor companies and academia are trying to encourage more women, especially students, to join the industry.
MediaTek Foundation has started the Girls! TECH Action project and recently invited 40 Taiwanese female college students to its headquarters in Hsinchu. The students had lunch with MediaTek's chairman Ming-Kai Tsai and talked to Tsai about career path choices, according to the organization.
Sherry Lin, MediaTek's senior vice president and chief human resources officer, said close to 40% of the students majored in literature, law or business management. Many have taught themselves programming or taken classes about it. She said the female students were ambitious in exploring jobs in the technology field and were not limited by their majors.
Tsai has said publicly multiple times that the IC design segment requires much human intelligence, offering a better working environment and pay than labor-intensive jobs. He also said young female talents are welcome to join the industry.
On the other hand, TSMC is said to target several top all-girl senior high schools in Taiwan to lure more female students into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Scholars have said women boast several qualities essential to technology development. The qualities include attention to detail, greater empathy, and better handling complicated tasks. The bottlenecks and restrictions that Taiwan's technology industry faces will likely be mitigated after more female talents join the industry.
More women working in the semiconductor industry will increase the talent pool and help the gender ratio balance. In addition, gender equality is a critical item in evaluating an enterprise's ESG efforts.
