Each year, people around the world come together in March to recognize and uplift the women who make up the fabric of our companies, families and communities. Our world couldn’t exist without them, and neither could our workplaces. So, today, we take a moment to celebrate the achievements and contributions of women both at SK hynix and across the globe.
For International Women’s Day 2021, SK hynix’s Wuxi office provided female colleagues with care packages of women’s products including hand sanitizers and face wash. Addtionally, SK hynix’s Chongqing office held an in-house event for female colleagues to make handmade lipsticks and presented them with jujubes – good for female blood circulation – and lottery tickets – as a symbol of good luck.
The global theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge, “We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.”
Celebrating the Women of SK hynix
Anna Martinovskaya
Team: DV
Time at SK hynix: 6 years
Location: Belarus, Minsk
What are you most proud of in your work? “Being part of SK hynix’s global R&D team, which is at the forefront of one of the most innovative areas – NAND – is a great point of pride for me. Working every day on certain tasks, I understand that I also contribute to the common cause of the company. Together we can improve the lives of people around the world, build a new efficient and intelligent future.”
Have you noticed an increase in women entering the industry in recent years? “When I started working in the SKHMS E DV team, I was the only lady in our team. Now there are four females in our team, which makes me very happy. Thus, I think the number of women in the semiconductor industry is growing permanently.”
What makes women so valuable in this industry? “Many studies prove that “innovative discoveries,” creative and non-standard solutions and products occur more often in companies with gender balance. In short, women can bring a new perspective, experience or expertise to a men’s team, which will generally have a positive effect on the development of the industry.”
How does the company encourage and support women? “In my opinion, the company sets the standard in creating a good working environment and provides great support for its Members equally regardless of gender.”
Ty Chatchaidech
Team: Sales
Time at SK hynix: 2 years
Location: San Jose, California
What makes women so valuable in this industry? “I believe we bring the soft side to the otherwise quite a stringent industry. I cannot speak for every woman as each and every one is unique. As for me, I find that I excel at resolving tensions and finding agreeable middle grounds that both parties can agree on so that we can move through difficult situations.”
What is the biggest issue facing women in the semiconductor industry? “We lack female executives and familiar role models for young girls to look up to. I think we need to change that.”
Who or what encouraged you to pursue your career? “My mother. She has always been the biggest supporter of mine. She herself received a PhD at 60 years of age. Her determination and aspirations have been and always will be my inspiration.”
What essential elements must a workplace have to create this positive environment? “Workplaces must appoint more female executives and more females in leadership roles, calibrate matching male/female wage scale, match maternity and paternity leave standards, and expand inclusion initiatives such as highlighting female vendors or donating to female-related causes.”
Liu Hanli
Team: CQ Purchasing
Time at SK hynix: 7 years
Location: Chongqing, China
What are you most proud of in your work? “What I am proud most of my time at work is that I solve my own problems one by one, even if I have a hundred times at a difficult time.”
How can SK hynix continue to encourage and support women? “To further create an equal working environment for men and women, I think that in addition to the big environmental and hardware efforts, each individual needs to work at the level of equal consciousness. If we build an equal and friendly working environment, the big environment naturally takes shape.”
What do you think is the biggest issue today facing women at work? “I think the biggest problem is still the contradiction between professional role and family role. Although today’s society has been more tolerant of working women, we still hope to have more understanding, to treat individual cases objectively, and not to generalize, to evaluate and judge with negative preconceptions and partial generalizations.”
What message do you have to women on International Women’s Day? “I wish women all over the world, those who want to ride the wind and waves in the workplace can set sail, and those who want to give consideration to both family and career can get what they want. The existence of women makes the world a better place.”
Wang Jing
Team: FAB QC
Time at SK hynix: 15 years
Location: Wuxi, China
Tell us about your career at SK hynix. “In the past 15 years, I have been working frequently in various factories of our company, inspecting and controlling tens of thousands of raw materials. Day after day, year after year, I have grown from a clueless new employee to an old employee who is proficient with the incoming inspection business.”
What is the biggest challenge facing women in the semiconductor industry? “There are more men than women at the middle and high levels of leadership – which has an impact on women’s rights and interests. Companies should give more platforms and opportunities to female employees so that they can give full power to women’s advantages and make a career.”
Who has been your biggest inspiration while growing your career? “Lin Lanying, who is the founder and pioneer of China’s semiconductor materials science. At first, she worked hard in a foreign country, and then returned home to make contributions to the motherland. Her hard work, perseverance and patriotism are all values worth learning.”
How does SK hynix encourage and support women? How can they improve? “Our company has made great efforts to create a friendly working environment for women. We have set up a staff lounge for pregnant women and a nursing room, and the women’s Working Committee of the trade union has menstrual vacation every quarter. But in creating equality between men and women, I think fair competition and job restrictions still need to be improved.”
Hui-Chun Wu
Team: SoC SSD IP
Time at SK hynix: 4.5 years
Location: San Jose, California
What makes women so valuable in the semiconductor industry? “I think that women are valuable in every industry, not only in the semiconductor industry. If I had to name a few traits that make the biggest difference, I would say women are equally smart but more patient, generally excel in communication, and are generally uninterested in participating in workplace politics.”
Is there a strong female leader in your life? “My grandma. She used to own a printing factory and raised children with the income of her factory. Fast-forward 50 years, I realized that I am also “printing” something on to the chip. She is 90 and surrounded by family.”
What message would you deliver to women pursuing a career in the semiconductor industry? “Here are a few principles that inspired me and saved me when I hit obstacles: Lean in when opportunities arise and believe in what you do; Recruit support and allocate time for yourself; Do one’s own homework and do not assume gender privilege even if you are lucky to have it; Pay the goodwill forward and help others.”
What needs to happen to encourage more women to join the field? “The work culture should respect family hours for employees with family. If childcare and family duties are shared and/or can be outsourced, women can remain in the workforce and continue to contribute their talent. When long-term career is possible, more women will join the field.”
HeeEun Choi
Team: DRAM PPNE
Time at SK hynix: 6 years
Location: Icheon, South Korea
How has your career at SK hynix evolved over the years? “I joined the company as a DRAM circuit design engineer and since the beginning, I have always considered PPNE as my future career path. After 5 years of building my knowledge in the circuit design team, I finally transferred to my current position – and the skills that I learned in early stages of my career have become great assets for my job today.”
Have you seen an increase in women entering the semiconductor industry in recent years? “I think that the semiconductor industry is getting more and more popular amongst female students especially in the past few years. This is probably because we are having more female students in engineering fields and so I think it is important encouraging more female students to entering engineering fields.”
What do you think is the biggest issue today facing women at work? “When coronavirus hit globally, the responsibilities of taking care of children and the elderly have disproportionally fallen on the shoulders of women. This proves that in any kind of similar situations, it is likely that a woman’s career will be the first to cut-off.”
What needs to happen to encourage more women to join the field? “To attract more women to join the field, we should introduce and advertise STEM field to female teenagers to let them peek into the women’s roles here. It is going to be a long haul and therefore I think it is important to do such jobs consistently.”
Continuing the Momentum
We know that the contributions of women don’t stop at the end of the month, and at SK hynix, we believe that this environment of recognition should continue throughout the year. In keeping with our values of community well-being, we strive to elevate the voices of our female employees every day across every one of our teams.
