Women in Semiconductors: a Critical Workforce Need

The percentage of women in the semiconductors industry is stubbornly weak. According to a report published in April, 51% of companies say they have less than 20% of their technical roles filled with women. At the same time, less of these companies were publicly committed to equal opportunities for the opportunities in 2024 than the previous year, the same report revealed.

This lack of support comes at the same time as the large shortages of labor are expected, explains Andrea MohamedCOO and co-founder of QuantuminWho helps companies attract, keep and advance women at the start of their career in STEM. Business focuses on the transition from higher education to the workforce, a critical point during which many women leave the STEM.

Spectrum ieee spoke in Mohamed to support women in semiconductor jobs and why a retirement from these initiatives is in contradiction with the needs of industry.

Andrea Mohamed on:

Tell me about your point of view as a veteran back from the semiconductor industry.

Andrea Mohamed: I worked for a semiconductor start-up over 20 years ago, and it was very dominated by men. Now, it’s always very dominated by men. Seeing the semiconductor industry with new eyes, what I see is an industry that has not evolved as quickly as other high-intensity industries. I worked for scientific organizations and research focused, and the progress made in other sectors have simply not been made in this particular sector.

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Mohamed: On a macro scale, you have an industry that faces many geopolitical and economic forces that disrupt the entire ecosystem of the supply chain around semiconductors, and there is a push to rehore and on the ground. There are many infrastructure gaps in this, one of them being the component of the workforce. It is not only semiconductors who are ready to be relocated and writing in the United States; It is also pharmaceutical and automotive. And all of this will continue to put pressure on the supply and demand curve, if you want, around work.

There was a huge attention on the STEM education pipeline, and rightly so. China and India produce STEM graduates at a rate with which we do not follow the pace. Although we have focused on the Stem Education pipeline, there has been very little attention to what industry is in companies to meet the challenges of the workforce.

There are a lot of additional concerns about corporate cultures, the cyclic nature of burns, policies that seem obsolete compared to other industries, including with regard to childcare services. The industry is very clearly articulated in education what it needs the next generation to have from the point of view of skills. But we do not see the voice of the worker of the next generation influencing the way the industry attracts them. We must start to see the industry recognize how it is in its own way with regard to the development of the workforce.

It seems that the problem goes beyond the “fleeing pipeline” which is often discussed.

Mohamed: RIGHT. We continue to talk about the pipeline that flees for all these steps of abandoned women. It starts in college, when the interest and confidence of girls in STEM are starting to decline. At each stage, there is a leak. And then you arrive at this stage at the start of your career, on which Quantumomom is concentrated, and this bucket springs. We lose a ton, and we all think of putting more water in the bucket, when really, we have to repair the holes. There are a lot of discussions on what it takes to attract women, people of color, other communities on semiconductor workforce and very little repair of holes.

Often, the experience at the start of his career is almost a jump or swim for everyone, whatever sex. We know with women, it is more likely that they leave.

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I understand that the semiconductor industry can really regress in these areas. Can you talk about it?

Mohamed: The latest report from the Global Semiconductor Alliance and Accenture on the state of women and semiconductors, is like a canary in a coal mine. We note a decrease in public commitments for the diversity and the progress we have made around the programs that support women. It is counter-intuitive that we reduce support exactly when we have to attract this audience to industry.

I understand the pressures that companies face around everything related to Dei. We have to change Dei’s conversation to talent management. It is retention and avoiding turnover costs. It is a question of requiring all the brilliant minds available in the United States who want to be in semiconductors. We have been away from this industry for so long. Other countries have existing talent bases. We have to build it.

The industry should therefore work on these initiatives to build better workplaces, whether labeled as promoting diversity?

Mohamed: I think a lot of activity Dei was performative. Many companies have really not committed to creating excellent workplaces for everyone. I think that is part of the reason why Dei was politicized. There is this notion that people had opportunities that were not based on merit. What I say is that it is not a conversation with merit, right? Women get a baccalaureate diploma at a higher pace than men and increases. Really, this is the development of human capital. You have women who withdraw from your industry, AAnd you must recognize and pay attention to the unique lived experience of women in these environments in order to solve the problem.

So there is a semantics in all of this, but it is not only the decomposition. It is a company. You will not be able to compete on a world scene in the United States if you do not find any ways to attract and preserve new workers’ communities, and women are one of these communities. This means understanding what women need their employer, because if you do not provide it, they will go elsewhere. Does the concern of companies concerning, if they manage a program like Quantumbloom, does that create a risk? This is the right question about risk. Your big risk is that your fab is empty because you cannot find workers and keep them.

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What have you observed in other industries, and what can they learn from the semiconductor chiefs of them?

Mohamed: Many women whose roots are in engineering end up working potentially in a technical organization, but not in a technical role. You also see them rotating in completely different industries. They go to business school, they become a consultant, they go to the Faculty of Law.

In other industries, there are organizations that are very intentional to attract and keep their younger talents. They devote resources to investing in them, which is very rare – most organizations invest more you go. Really, we have to think about turning this script and investing earlier.

Andrea Mohamed is a coo and co-founder of Quantumbloom, a professional development company focused on women in STEM.Andrea Mohamed

When I think of the solutions led by the employer around the talents at the start of his career, what comes to mind are learning, rotation programs and the development of leadership skills – all the things you are not taught in school but which are really important for your success. These are skills you take with you for an entire career. When you invest in the top, most of the time, people say, “I would like to have this in their twenties.” I don’t see Many of thESE solutions be used In this industry. I recently heard that one of the major semiconductor giants in this country had an engineering rotation program and stopped it five years ago. I spoke to a person who had participated in this program and how essential it was in their experience at the start of a career.

Are there other steps which, in your opinion, are important for semiconductor chiefs?

Mohamed: The things that the Quantumome resolution is very early and focused on individuals. At the same time, companies must think about the change in descending culture and the processing of industry. These are long -term horizon things to repair.

People join businesses and leave the bosses. The relationship with your boss is so important. You can be in a relatively terrible cultural organization and have a wonderful boss, and you can have professional success. Vice Versa, you could be in an impressive corporate culture with a terrible boss and not prosper. If we can improve this primary working relationship, strengthen more empathy for the experiences of others at the local level, we can improve work results and retention. And then things are starting to spread. This manager who can support a particular woman in our program, they learn skills and tools to be more inclusive leaders who extend beyond this woman.

We do it more at this local level, but man, companies really need to tackle downward transformation and culture change. In the end, we need the semiconductor chiefs planning to become a magnet for all talents, then to commit the resources and organizational changes necessary to make this reality vision.

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