Taiwan’s tech industry taps female talent pool amid labour shortage

HSINCHU, Taiwan: Taiwan’s technology industry has always been a male-dominated sector, but one major player is looking to tap the female talent pool amid a manpower shortage.
To do that, MediaTek –  the world’s largest smartphone chip maker – is aiming to change the gender imbalance through education. Among its initiatives is organising camps for high school girls from across Taiwan, in the hopes that they will eventually join the industry.
“I’m interested in writing computer programs during computer classes in school, so I joined the camp,” said one participant.
“I learnt a lot from the professors and female engineers. They’ve cultivated my interest in technology and I plan to head towards this career direction.”
Female workers only make up about a quarter of the workforce in the technology industry, noted MediaTek Foundation executive secretary Cynthia Feng.
In the semiconductor industry and other related sectors such as electrical engineering and electronic information, female graduates account for an even smaller proportion – 13 to 15 per cent, she added. 
Based on research papers she has published, stereotypes may have hampered females from pursuing careers in the tech industry, she told CNA. 
“Girls seem to lose interest in math and technology between the ages of 10 and 14 because of the perception of their roles in the society or lack of confidence in their own abilities,” she said.
Currently, MediaTek’s female employees account for 20 per cent of its total workforce – a proportion it is looking to increase in a bid to boost innovation.
“Adding women’s perspectives would help to find a more innovative and comprehensive solution to a problem,” she said. 
It also hopes to recruit more females to fill the job gaps, as the tech industry struggles with talent shortage due to a shrinking birth rate and competition with international tech giants. Based on a recent survey conducted by a local job bank, more than 50 per cent of Taiwan’s tech companies are hiring.
Currently, there are more than 100,000 job openings just for engineers.
Ms Katherine Kao, who has been working as an engineer for MediaTek for seven years, said the company provides flexible work hours for female workers who may need to strike a balance between home and work.
However, there are challenges that come with being one of few females in the firm, the 30-year-old added.
“For instance, when delegating challenging tasks that require more effort, managers would worry whether women could handle them. So if I want to take on challenging or difficult tasks, I would have to really take the initiative to ask for it,” she said. 
Still, Ms Kao believes perceptions are changing now as the industry is actively seeking to tap the female workforce.
“Some people probably think that boys have better logic and can better adapt to the technology industry. Maybe they are more suitable for work like coding and other more difficult tasks. But girls are just as intelligent as boys,” she said.