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Semiconductor

Doubling women in semiconductor leadership

February 22, 2021

RESEARCH REPORT

In brief

  • Accenture and GSA partner on research to explore best practices, identify areas for improvement and provide plan to boost gender diversity.
  • Survey results identify three trends: recruitment, retention and career advancement, pointing to underrepresentation of women.
  • Education ensures women are equipped to pursue a career in the semiconductor industry.
  • Best practices double number of women in leadership roles, capital for women-led start-ups and number of STEM-focused women joining the industry.

Among the surveyed companies, women make up 20-25% of the total workforce in 2020. To reach parity, it is important for companies to implement programs and instill a corporate culture that encourages closing the gap.

Key initiatives to help close the gender gap:

Recruitment

Recruitment of women starting at a young age to build a strong pipeline for the future.

Retention

Retention of women in high-tech roles through strong and flexible benefits and programs such as mentorship, sponsorships and professional development programs.

Career advancement

Career advancement to ensure that women have access to the same opportunities as men.

Education

Education to level the playing field, ensuring women not only have the qualifications to pursue a certain job, but they also have the confidence that they can do it successfully.

When it comes to evaluating the culture of the business represented to women, we’ve identified a checklist for enterprises to assess themselves and determine if they are providing a women-friendly culture.

  • Look inside your own company. Diversity can be seen in the numbers. What percentage of women do you have? What percentage are in director roles and above?
  • Evaluate the onboarding process.
  • Review your programs and benefits. Have these been updated to be more appealing to women?
  • Do your benefits and programs provide flexibility to women to enable them to balance work/home life demands? Do you have programs such as mentorship and sponsorship?
  • Look for and eliminate gender biases in the organization. Workplace environments and employee collaboration must be monitored to recognize even subtle biases that may exist.
  • Build your pipeline. You can’t hire if you don’t have qualified candidates. Programs at universities, participation in women’s leadership organizations and continued investments in STEM can help.
  • Offer career advancement opportunities to women. Are women regularly considered for promotions; before hiring have you looked internally to see if women could do the job you need to fill?
  • Keep in touch with women after they are hired. When a woman leaves a company, companies need to know how they are doing and how they feel. Companies need to make sure women feel they have the programs, benefits, training and opportunities to want to stay in the company.
  • Build a culture that values women and their advancement. Actively create an inclusive environment where everyone feels like they belong.

10%

Women account for less than 10% of the technical total workforce in almost half of the surveyed companies.

1 in 4

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many were challenged with the loss of child-care, forcing 1 in 4 women to consider leaving their job or downshifting their careers to be primary caregivers at home.

2020

During the year, a higher share of companies have 30-40% of their women in tech employees staying longer at the company.

Education is the great equalizer and is needed to level the playing field for women and men in the semiconductor industry. Many top business schools are revamping their programs to appeal to women.

Along with identifying if a company has a women-friendly culture, there are several considerations for women to assess a company’s culture. Developing a company culture that women are proud to support can help retention and future recruitment of women in the workplace.

  • What was your first impression during the interview? If you have the qualifications, did you feel they saw you as qualified?
  • Are you confident you can do the job as required by the company?
  • Does the company offer fair and good pay and benefits?
  • Does the company offer work/life balance?
  • Do you love your job?
  • Do you feel like you have a sense of purpose at work?
  • Does your management support you as a woman?
  • Are there opportunities for you to grow in the company?
  • Does your company offer training to broaden your expertise?
  • Are there role models you can look up to such as women in leadership?

"When you are able to raise your own bar, then you are really motivated. When you are happy with what you're doing, it's the best way of retaining people."

— MARIA MERCED, President TSMC
Jolie LeBlanc

Senior Manager – Accenture Strategy

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