As India eyes semiconductor glory, companies chipping away at gender gap

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

semiconductor manufacturing hub, companies in the sector are looking to close the gender gap as they bet their chips on innovation-focused talent to make the most of the opportunity. A host of companies including AMD, Applied Materials, Analog Devices, and Synaptics are making concerted efforts to build a pipeline of female talent through targeted recruitment drives, mentoring, employee resource groups, pay adjustments, and leadership development, industry executives said. According to the 2022 Semiconductor Gender Parity Study from Global Semiconductor Alliance and Accenture, there is an urgent need for innovation-focused talent in the industry, and women represent a significant opportunity to provide that talent.

However, building a pipeline for recruitment continues to be the largest challenge, executives said. In June, AMD India launched a mentorship programme called I-WIL (India Women in Leadership). Under this initiative, selected employees are assigned a dedicated mentor from the senior leadership team for a period of six months, Fathima Farouk, HR head of AMD India, said.

The diversity ratio at the Santa Clara-headquartered firm is over 20%, and the company is looking to improve this number through focused drives to recruit skilled women engineers from college. The company also runs a women's forum, which provides opportunities for women to lead and promotes engagement with the company and beyond. Over 1,000 women employees in India are a part of this forum, Farouk said.