Special Section

DAC Program Promotes Ways for Women to Take Control of Their Career Decisions A day-long workshop on Sunday will explore how women in EDA and other segments of the electronics industry can take ownership of their careers. by Penny Herscher

It starts in the early teens. For reasons still not fully understood, though girls have roughly the same math scores on their SATs as boys, many girls report lost confidence in high school and channel their energy into other areas. One result? An engineering workforce has developed comprising relatively few women employees, with still fewer in R&D.

We can't single-handedly solve the diversity problems of the U.S. workforce. But with the incredible demand for good engineers, the design automation industry needs to nurture the creation of a diverse population in order to remain competitive with other industries.

The need is nowhere more acute than on the "value creation" side of the equation. On the "value delivery" side--marketing, sales, finance, human resources, general administration, and customer support--the percentage of women in the workforce, although not equal to that of men, is increasing. On the value creation side--R&D and product development--however, it's still slim.

Looking at the incoming statistics, we can see that the starting point is far from good. In engineering, women make up 18 percent of graduates with bachelor's degrees, 17.7 of those with master's, and 12.5 percent of those with doctorates. As an industry, we need to do much more at the high school and college levels to interest young women in engineering in general and in design automation and IC design in particular.

As for those women who do choose to enter EDA, considerable skill is necessary to retain them. Most of our companies are vying with Silicon Valley software and Internet companies, both of which have a higher representation of women in R&D and senior management than EDA. It is important that both men and women in the industry nurture and mentor new entrants through formal programs, like Women Unlimited, and through such informal means as simply giving time. (Women Unlimited provides a one-year program made up of a combination of training classes and one-on-one mentoring by volunteer executives. It's designed to help women overcome obstacles and advance both their core skills and how they are perceived.)

For companies wanting to attract great engineers, it's also important to be "family-friendly." The majority of mothers (and of course even more fathers) of young children in the United States now work. Providing a work environment that helps solve the practical challenges of raising children while working makes advancement more accessible to women.

Another formal program aimed at helping women this year is the Workshop for Women in Design Automation at the Design Automation Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The five-session workshop, which will be held Sunday, June 14, from 9 AM to 4 PM, is designed to stimulate thinking regarding how women can take ownership of their careers. With the theme "Forget the Ceiling--Break the Glass," it will offer discussions by speakers and panelists, many from R&D, on how women unthinkingly damage themselves, how good habits help women advance, and how women can take advantage of mentoring programs. Small group discussions will seek to stimulate personal planning. (For the full agenda, see Simplex Solutions' Web site, www.simplex.com.)

For women to succeed in EDA, the industry must develop educational programs and support networking activities. But these steps alone are not sufficient. Women need to take control of their own career decisions, tap into the incredible demand for talent, and strive to create diversity through their own success. I encourage you, women in EDA, to seek advice, listen carefully, and then outperform those around you. If you do that, how can you lose?

Penny Herscher is the president & CEO of Simplex Solutions, Inc. in San Jose and chair of the DAC Workshop for Women in Design Automation. Before joining Simplex, she held various marketing and R&D positions-- most recently as vice president and general manager of the Design Environment Group at Synopsys . Herscher also plays an active role in the Women Unlimited mentoring program.

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integrated system design  June 1998