In Taiwan and around the world, female representation in STEM and the technology industry has been abysmal. Increasing the number of women on boards and in the workforce enhances women’s rights, increases their participation in society, and is an ethical obligation for businesses. Evidence shows that diversity and inclusion can also enhance firm performance, profitability, governance, and sustainability. 

But significant barriers hinder women from participating in the technology industry in Taiwan, including lack of role models in top positions, unconscious bias, weak leave and childcare policies, and entrenched gender norms and expectations. Increasing women’s participation in tech and meeting the gender gap could harness an underused portion of the labor force and contribute to alleviating Taiwan’s labor shortage.

The Taiwan context: Lack of women’s representation in tech

According to data collected by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), in 2021, only 14.24% of board members and only 8% of board chairs of listed companies were women. In the United States and the EU, there are around 25% and 30% women on boards, respectively. 

For women board chairs, Taiwan performs slightly worse than the EU, where 10% of board chairs are women, but slightly better than the U.S., where women’s representation among board chairs is 5.8%. Compared to other economies in the region, Taiwan performs better in women’s representation in boards and leadership positions than the Asia-Pacific average, outpacing South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. 

Table 2. Gender diversity in board of directors: Selected top 28 tech companies in Taiwan. 

Company Name	Female	Male	Total	% Female
Lite-On Technology Corp.	0	10	10	0.00%
United Microelectronics Corp.	2	7	9	22.22%
Delta Electronics, Inc.	1	9	10	10.00%
ASE Technology Holdings	1	12	13	7.69%
Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.	1	8	9	11.11%
Yageo Corporation	0	9	9	0.00%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.	1	9	10	10.00%
Winbond Electronics Corporation	2	9	11	18.18%
Accton Technology Corp.	1	7	8	12.5%
Asustek Computer Inc.	0	13	13	0.00%
Micro-Star International Co.,Ltd.	1	10	11	9.09%
Realtek Semiconductor Corporation	1	9	10	10.00%
Quanta Computer Inc.	0	6	6	0.00%
Advantech Co., Ltd.	1	6	7	14.29%
Nanya Technology Corporation	2	10	12	16.67%
AU Optronics Corp.	2	6	8	25.00%
Mediatek Inc.	0	8	8	0.00%
Novatek Microelectronics Corp.	1	7	8	12.50%
Unimicron Technology Corp.	1	8	9	11.11%
Win Semiconductors Corp.	1	8	9	11.11%
eMemory Technology Inc.	2	6	8	25.00%
Pegatron Corporation	1	10	11	9.09%
Vanguard International Semiconductor Co.	0	7	7	0.00%
Sino-American Silicon Products Inc.	1	9	10	10.00%
Silergy Corp.	0	6	6	0.00%
GlobalWafers Co., Ltd	1	6	7	14.29%
Wiwynn Corporation	2	7	9	22.22%
E Ink Holdings Inc.	1	8	9	11.11%

(Source: Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Center.)

In the tech industry, women’s representation on boards falls below the national average. Extracting TWSE data by tech subsectors, I found that the industries with the worst women’s representation are the semiconductor (12.42%), computer and peripherals (11.50%), and communications and internet industries (11.97%). Women board chairs and CEOs are almost non-existent in tech, save for standout women leaders such as Hsu Hsiu-Lan (徐秀蘭) of GlobalWafers, known as the “Wafer Queen,” and Kao Hsin-Ming (高新明) of Marketech International Corporation. 

Figure 1. Women Board Members in Taiwan’s Tech Companies, average by sector. Source: Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Center and company websites. (Source: Nathanael Cheng)

Large semiconductor or electronic components manufacturers often employ technicians who are mostly young and female to work on assembly floors, but these companies continue to fall behind on women’s representation in professional STEM and management positions. Female management in many tech companies lag behind the national average of 30.5% for women in management positions. For example, according to TSMC’s 2020 corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, 37.1% of its workforce is female, but only 20% of STEM employees are female, and only 12% of management positions are held by women. Similarly, MediaTek has a 20.8% female workforce, but has 19% female STEM employees and only 10.8% female management. 

Table 3. Female representation in workforce figures from select Taiwan tech companies.

	ASE Tech.	MediaTek	UMC	TSMC	Delta Elec.	Foxconn
Female Employees (%/N)	48.5% (44,795)	20.8% (3,314)	43.2% (8,314)	37.1% (21,084)	46.8% (39,220)	37% (358,788)
Female Management
Total Top Middle Junior	24.2% 12.9% -- 19.4%	10.8% 4% 10% 11%	-- 10.7% 12.3% 13.4%	12.5% 10.0% -- 13.0%	32.8% 13.2% -- 57.8%	-- -- -- --
Females in engineering positions	13.3%	19.0%	19.9%	20%	21.9%	--
Pay Gap (M:F)	1:0.89 ~ 1:1.02	1:1	1:0.95 ~ 1:1.03	0.93 ~ 1.13	1:0.93 ~ 1:1.27	1:1

(Source: Company CSR reports.)

The fact that female representation drops going up the corporate ladder suggests that there is not just a supply issue of finding women who can fill roles, but also a “glass ceiling” problem within companies and society that prevent qualified women from advancing. This is supported by surveys of women in the workforce who report retention and advancement are the biggest challenges to female representation, more so than recruitment. 

Barriers to women in tech

From the 1970s, Taiwan’s feminist movement made early efforts to increase women participation in government, instituting gender quotas, a women’s rights commission, and gender equality education. To advance women’s economic participation, activists worked to increase women’s labor force participation and improve labor rights. But relatively less attention has been paid to cultivating and increasing the number of women business leaders. Perpetuation of traditional Confucian gender norms, lack of role models in business, barriers to promotions, and poor work-life reconciliation policies continue to impose a glass ceiling on women in business leadership.

In Taiwan, the factors inhibiting greater gender diversity in STEM are no different from other countries. There is significant horizontal gender segregation between STEM and liberal arts majors in secondary and tertiary education, with a large portion of women going into liberal arts and healthcare. Cultural norms that confine women to household duties persist. The role of teachers, discouragement of parents, gender stereotypes, and media and societal narratives present psychosocial barriers to women choosing STEM careers. 

Even girls in Taiwan gifted in STEM were shown to gradually lose career self-efficacy and interest in STEM compared to girls gifted in language or social sciences, primarily due to lack of career programs and mentorship. This combination of factors lead to a “leaky pipeline” in education, losing girls and women from STEM pathways.

In the early stages of Taiwan’s economic development, the government encouraged young women to participate in the labor force due to the relative scarcity of labor and to achieve economic development goals. Today, female labor force participation is thus very high for women ages 25-29, reaching 90.5%, but participation steadily decreases among middle-aged and older women. In Japan and South Korea, female labor force participation drops during childbearing years, then rises again, creating an m-shaped curve. No significant “m-shaped” rebound in female participation exists in Taiwan, suggesting that barriers remain for middle-aged women seeking to reenter the workforce.

Inadequate work-life reconciliation policies pose a significant barrier to women advancing in their career. Taiwanese law provides for eight weeks paid maternity leave and two years of unpaid parental leave, but many women choose not to take parental leave, partly because of a perception that the government would not intervene on their behalf if their company hired someone else or because they could not afford to take leave. Taiwanese women report feeling guilty when being promoted to higher positions, especially due to pressures to juggle career and family. The percentage of men taking parental leaves is still low but has slowly increased.  

Finally, women lack role models and supportive networks in the industry. According to the 2021 Women on Boards Taiwan Whitepaper on Female Governance, women leaders found the top challenges they faced included unconscious bias, unpaid care work and non-work responsibility, and lack of business networks and discrimination towards women. The resources they felt were most needed included support to promote market access, help to establish networks, and information/education/skills training. 

Recommendations

Business and government should take concrete action to address the gender gap. The Talent Circulation Alliance (TCA), a partnership between the U.S. de facto embassy in Taiwan and Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, has argued that increasing women’s participation in public life should take a central role in national labor policy and economic development. 

Currently, state-owned enterprises have a mandated gender quota for boards, a quota that could be expanded to include all publicly-listed companies. Government bodies such as the National Development Council (NDC), the Financial Supervisory Commission, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs can use public initiatives to spotlight diversity on boards and reward innovative diversity measures in companies. The National Development Fund, established under the NDC to promote economic development and emerging industries, can set board gender quotas as a prerequisite for financial assistance. 

Pressure to comply with UN Sustainable Development Goals, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as well as standards set by stock exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange or the Taipei Stock Exchange (TWSE), incentivize public companies to take action. TWSE gathers data on corporate governance for listed companies and awards extra “points” if women on a company’s board exceed 30%. TWSE could pressure Taiwanese tech companies to step up diversity and inclusion efforts through corporate governance monitoring mechanisms. Of course, companies should take action on their own: UMC has already pledged to increase women board members to at least three, and WT Microelectronics recently announced the naming of three female board members, bringing female board representation to 43%. 

TCA also recommends the incorporation of the concept of “work-life integration” instead of work-life “balance” into labor laws, making it easier for parents to work part time and encouraging companies to adopt best practices for work-life reconciliation. Companies can encourage men and women to take parental leave, allow for flexible part-time work, and hold workshops to break down unconscious bias and stigma over work-life balance. Focusing on work-life integration for management positions is crucial as women face most challenges in retention in middle and upper management.

The largest tech companies in Taiwan have made some efforts to offer attractive maternity, childcare, and parental leave benefits to employees. ASE offers a “comprehensive leave management system,” which was used by 1,042 employees in 2020, and ASE reports a 75% return rate and an 86% retention rate among women taking leave. The company also offers private kindergartens and nurseries near its offices for employees. TSMC reports a 77% retention rate for employees that take parental leave, and 557 employees applied for unpaid parental leave in 2020.

Diversity management is also crucial to harnessing the benefits of a diverse workforce; diversity must be actively managed on all levels of the company through education, best practices, and norm-setting, whereby diversity can improve efficacy and not reduce it. Without proper diversity management, increased diversity at times can lead to decreased board cohesion, greater task conflict, miscommunication, stereotyping, and even decreased performance. Diversity and inclusion efforts are most effective when they are treated as a business priority and led with personal investment by the CEO. 

Finally, schools must actively encourage women to enter STEM careers, and women’s networks such as Women on Board Taiwan can provide resources and mentors to women as they advance the career ladder. Initiatives like the New Trailblazer Plan (產業新尖兵計畫) under the Ministry of Labor offer training to young people interested in switching into the tech industry. Program recruits often land job offers at major tech and semiconductor companies. 

National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University hosts a New Trailblazer program, and new recruits into the program have recently achieved a 1-to-1 male-female ratio, indicating strong female interest in tech. Partnerships between government, universities, and businesses can help to seal up the “leaky pipeline” of women in STEM and solve the problem of gender segregation by STEM and non-STEM majors. 

Increasing the attractiveness of STEM careers for women and allowing them to advance to the highest positions in business can alleviate the labor shortage facing the island. Diverse and inclusive work environments can not only build a pipeline of diverse domestic talent, but also attract the foreign talent that Taiwan badly needs. 

The supply chain shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic exposed how critical Taiwan’s semiconductors are to the global economy. As other countries scramble to diversify or build their own semiconductor capacity, it is in Taiwan’s own interest to build a diverse, dynamic workforce to maintain its competitive edge.

(This article reflects the author's personal opinion, not that of his present or past employers, nor of CommonWealth Magazine.)

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About the author:

Nathanael Cheng is a fellow at the Cohen Group, where he supports business clients across multiple industries, with a focus on China and Taiwan. He has an MA in Asian Studies from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he has conducted research on the intersection of business and human rights in the technology industry. He is a recipient of the Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship and is a former Peace Corps China Volunteer. Twitter: @nc801d2

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