Women ignored and discriminated at ASML

Intimidating managers, being ignored at meetings, being barked at by colleagues, or penalized for speaking up. Women who work at ASML have it far from easy and don’t feel heard by the company. They tell their story at Studio040.

About 18600 permanent employees work at ASML Netherlands, of which more than 3700 are women. The Veldhoven-based chip machine manufacturer also wants to hire more and more women, the company explains, but at the same time, the company fails to create a pleasant working environment for many women. Especially women from outside the EU feel discriminated against on the basis of their gender in the workplace, according to research by Studio040.

Multiple sources in and around the company, including union and works council members, confirm the picture. Moreover, women are not only discriminated against in the workplace. There also seem to be mechanisms in the company organization that discriminate against women, that promote sexism in the workplace, and that prevent abuses from being dealt with effectively. Studio040 will publish a second article on the latter on Friday.

Sexism in the workplace

Kaawa* is one of the women who said she has experienced discrimination based on her gender. She is from an Asian country and has been employed at ASML for about 10 years. Kaawa says sexism at ASML is mainly in the way women are treated in the workplace. “For example, you can present an idea in a group but it is not accepted, while if a male colleague later makes the same proposal, it is taken up. You are then just not taken seriously,” she said.

“Another example is when volunteers are required for a difficult technical assignment. I volunteered but the group leader waited for a male volunteer. Incidentally, the group leader in this case was herself a woman; just to show that not men are always the problem.”

Corporate culture

“I think sexism is common at ASML, but it’s hard to say to what extent it’s really part of the corporate culture. ASML is big and there are many different departments. In the department where I work now, there are more women and I am not discriminated against. In the previous department where I worked, that did happen.”

Judged differently on the same thing

Gauhar, who is also from an Asian country, has worked at the Veldhoven company for six years. She has remarkably identical experiences. “I can very much identify with Kaawa’s words,” she says, “you are simply judged differently on the same thing. Certain things you do, ideas you come up with, and problems you solve are less appreciated and less well-judged than similar things among male colleagues. But people are also less open, for example, to the proposals you make. Your ideas are talked over more quickly in meetings.”

Zaafira, who has been with the company for about two years, has the same experiences, but in addition, she is also shocked by the way she is sometimes addressed. “I don’t know what it’s like at other places in the company but I have to be honest and say that sometimes I have a hard time. In one of the groups I am in, I work with two other women, and for the rest exclusively men. In it, there is a male colleague who does not talk to me in a normal, respectful way.”

Humiliation

“He barks at me,” Zaafira says. “He sometimes acts like I’m not right in my head, a humiliating experience. I’m relatively new, so of course I don’t know how everything works yet but instead of being helped, I’m mostly ignored, including by my team leader.”

“I don’t feel I can do anything about it,” Zaafira continued. “I have also raised the problem with the scrum master (someone who supervises the work process ed.), but then nothing happens. I also feel that it is an open secret that my colleague can misbehave in this way. But he has been employed longer than me and it is accepted apparently. But I go to work with a stomach ache and stress on days when I know he is also in the office.”

Stories circulate

The experiences of Kaawa, Gauhar and Zaafira, all three of whom hold technical positions with the company, do not seem to be isolated. Barbara who is from South America is not surprised to hear the stories, although as a scrum master, she has no experience of discrimination. She did, however, feel she was not taken seriously in her department. “Stories like that also circulate in the workplace,” she says.

‘Must stand strong in your shoes’

According to Barbara, it also has to do with the work culture at ASML. ”Opinions about certain things can be taken less seriously when you’re new. You have to be strong and able to express your opinions clearly and confidently. After all, people who have worked there for years have little incentive to take your ideas seriously otherwise. I started working when I had to implement a new way of working in my department. In this, I encountered a lot of resistance. For example, of meetings I wanted to call, I was told that they were not important.”

Barbara also eventually saw that her situation was not improving. “I informed several times that I was not happy with the way I had to work and how I was approached. After speaking out a few times nothing changed, then I asked for a transfer to another department.”

Cultural difference

Innayath thinks it’s more in the country of origin, rather than gender. “ASML is a very big company. I think how women are approached depends a lot on the department you work in. I remember one manager telling me about another manager that he thought women are less technically gifted and therefore didn’t want women in his group.”

“But in my department, I don’t feel such sentiments,” Innayath says. “I see a lot of women in many different positions, and certainly in management positions, it has recently been policy to hire women. So I don’t feel discrimination based on gender. I think the feeling of discrimination is more between European and non-European workers. I feel that as a non-European worker, you have to prove yourself extra hard. Even if you got your education here.”

‘Sometimes maybe worse’

Gauhar disagrees “A cultural thing? On the contrary, it is a very multicultural company. It may involve discrimination by origin, but even then there is a sexist aspect to it. I really feel that especially women who are not from Europe are the target of discrimination. On the other side, it is not only Dutch colleagues who are guilty of discrimination. In absolute numbers, they are more often guilty but that is also because they are the great majority in the company. Non-Dutch colleagues also discriminate.”

Making a career

But the women don’t just feel discriminated against by harassing colleagues. There are also fewer opportunities for them within the company, Gauhar believes. “Dutchmen grow more in the company, men in general make careers easier,” he said.

Motherhood

The feeling that career advancement is more difficult for women at the high-tech giant is also prevalent among Kaawa, especially since she became a mother. “Because I started working less, I also get less challenging assignments. At ASML, your dedication is measured in part by the number of hours you work. If you start working less, you are seen as less dedicated and get less challenging assignments. For young mothers, this is difficult. Because you get less challenging assignments, it also makes it harder to stand out, which makes it even harder to get promoted.”

That doesn’t happen willy-nilly, by the way, she thinks. “In part, the consideration is that women who have just had a child also don’t want to travel with a client. But then you get passed over, without being asked anything. While mothers also like to work on beautiful projects.”

‘Not our problem’

“Support for mothers is counterproductive in that way. In the same way, another young mother skipped becoming a group leader. As a result, she had to wait a year before she could take that step. When she brought it up, the retort she got from ASML was, ‘That’s not our problem.'”

Talking to the Press

Studio040, directly and indirectly, polled several dozen female employees of ASML, asking if they recognized sounds of female discrimination. Although none of them answered in the negative, the vast majority indicated that their employment contracts stated that they were not allowed to talk to the press about internal occasions. Of the women who did want to speak to Studio040, only Barbara later informed ASML. ASML informs about the freedom of speech of its employees, as follows.

“Our media policy is designed to protect company-sensitive and confidential information. It is also meant to make sure that not just anyone can tell about our company externally or voice an opinion on a sensitive topic. We want to have a check on that and that makes sense given the size and importance of the company,” ASML said.

ASML reveals that satisfaction surveys show that employees give high scores to questions about whether their input is valued, whether everyone can develop, and whether they can always voice their opinions. Scores awarded by women to the company have risen significantly in recent years, ASML said.

Several questions were asked of ASML about the company’s anti-discrimination policy and the sounds expressed in the article. The company did not respond to Studio040’s specific questions but did issue a statement that can be read below.

ASML’s response

“If a number of female employees indicate that they feel they do not come into their own at ASML we are shocked by this. Because we have a very diverse group of employees (e.g. we have more than 140 nationalities), we work hard to be a company where we welcome everyone, respect everyone, do justice to everyone, and can develop and be who we are. To this end, we have established extensive programs and trainings. Many colleagues actively participate in special networks for women, young professionals, seniors, neurodiversity and the LGBTQ community. We also have focus groups that provide input into our diversity and inclusion policies.

It is true that the number of women at ASML is still low (21 percent). But we have made progress in this area and our number is in line with the technology sector. We are determined to continue to improve it. As part of diversity and inclusion, more plans are being developed and we hope that many women and men will participate in them.”

So when we hear that there are colleagues who are not satisfied after all, it is very disappointing and we want to know more and see what we can do about this. So we would like to hereby extend an open invitation to female colleagues who would like to discuss this issue further. Our new director of HR & organization would like to get in touch with them and will also speak to many people about this topic herself in the coming months during her induction period.”

*The speakers in this article do not wish to be named, their names are therefore fictitious. The names of all interviewees are known to the editors.

The second article on this topic you can find here.

Source: Studio040

Translated by: Chaitali Sengupta. She also gives online INBURGERING classes.