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>> Hello, everyone.
Welcome to "theCUBE's" coverage
of the International Women's Showcase, 2022.
I'm your host, Lisa Martin.
I'm pleased to be joined by my next guest,
Madhura DasGupta Sinha,
the founder and CEO of Aspire For Her.
Madhura, it's great to have you on the program.
>> It's lovely to be here on this program.
Thank you for having me, Lisa
>> Tell me a little bit about your background.
>> Lisa, I have been a banker for the last 25 years
but the last two years of my journey
have been professionally and personally the most satisfying
and fulfilling.
On 8th of March, 2020, I started Aspire For Her.
So today is our second birthday.
>> Lisa: Happy birthday.
>> Thank you, Lisa
>> Tell us a little bit
about Aspire For Her >> It's been a wonderful
journey.
>> Yeah, what was the genesis of it?
You're obviously very passionate about it
but talk to us about the Genesis of Aspire For Her.
>> Thank you for the question.
I was looking at gender data emanating from India
and that left me fairly disturbed and distressed, why?
Well, I was looking at the economic participation
of women and I realized that we are absolutely at the bottom
of a list of 156 countries.
I felt someone needs to do something about this problem
and I thought that someone could be me.
>> And so two years ago you launched Aspire For Her.
Talk to me about what that has achieved
in its first two years and now embarking on year three.
>> Well, I think our journey has been absolutely fascinating
Today we have more than 120,000 members, mentors, supporters
across the globe, across 60 different countries.
We have more than 150 women leaders who are mentors
at Aspire For Her,
we have about 50 organizations that are working
with us jointly and partnering with us
in our journey to motivate more women to enter
and stay in the workforce.
Our vision is to add more
than 1 million women to the workforce
by 2025 and 10 million women to the workforce by 2030
and we want to do that by using the power of networks
and communities.
>> Those are really lofty goals, but fantastic.
You mentioned and across 60 countries so far
and we're talking about just on your second birthday,
all of that you've accomplished.
Talk to me a little bit about some of the mentors
and how did you find some of these people?
>> Well, Lisa, we use a unique five point model
to change mindsets, and the first pillar in that model
is mentors and role models.
Because we notice
that four out of five women have no successful, professional
women role models in their immediate network.
We give them access.
So these mentors are CEOs, CXOs,
women leaders who have built businesses
who want to give back and they come to us
and want to be part of Aspire For Her.
They are a big part of our equation for success.
The second pillar that we work on is learning opportunities
and we work with organizations like Amazon
and many others to ensure that our members stand
head over shoulders over others
when they are being looked at for jobs
and recruitment opportunities.
The third pillar that we work on
is what we call career previews.
Now, if you are wanting to get women excited about careers
we have to understand one thing,
if she can see it, she can be it.
That's the mantra that we follow
as we open up doors and windows of women's minds
to new age career options.
The fourth pillar that we work on
is what we call a peer community.
And what we notice
is that the community connects with each other,
motivates each other and elevates each other
and collectively finds solutions to problems.
The fifth pillar that we work with
is what we call 3E, employment, entrepreneurship,
or education.
We want every woman in our country
and across the globe to be in 3E.
We want every woman to be financially independent
because financial independence is the cornerstone
of all other forms of independence
and that is how we can break all biases.
>> That is fantastic.
The five point model, how it leads of the 3E's.
Something you said really resonated with me
and that is: if she can see it, she can be it.
And we often say, we can't be what we can't see
but I love this spin that you've taken on that,
you've put that positive mindset, if she can see it,
we want to enable her to see it across the globe.
As you talked about your goals
of a million women in the workforce by 2025
which is just a few years down the road,
you're well on your way to accomplishing that.
Talk to me about some of the data.
I know you have some interesting data
from McKinsey that really supported the genesis
of Aspire For Her.
>> Yes, Lisa, in fact, there's a report
for the "Power Of Parity" report
which McKinsey publishes from time to time
and I notice some very interesting data in that.
McKinsey says, "If we have a little more
"than 10% women more in the workforce
"this will be a trillion dollar opportunity for India.
"A 27% increase in our GDP."
So if we get more women to work,
it essentially means that they will add to their families,
to their country, to their society, to the world.
>> So the data is there showing just a 10% increase in women
in the workforce leads to a 27% increase in India's GDP.
We're talking about India alone here.
Talk to me about how are you working with companies
like AWS to help Aspire For Her achieve it's lofty goals.
>> AWS has been an absolutely wonderful partner for us.
And let me start by talking about the She Dares community,
their focus on diversity and their thought leadership
has been absolutely wonderful for us.
Well, the She Dares community is meant for all women
who want to be in tech careers
whether today they're in school or in college
or they're working in non-tech fields, but are interested
in technology as a career option or they're taking a break
and they wish to come back into the workforce.
The AWS, She Dares community welcomes all women like this.
It's very inclusive, all embracive and that's what we love
about building the community with AWS.
We just started two months ago
and today we have more than 10,000 members in India
and we've had some fantastic stories
also emanating from the She Dares community in AWS.
>> I love that.
You've 10,000 members in two months,
the Aspire For Her program,
not only does it have lofty goals
but you've got a really fast growth trajectory.
Share a story with me, if you will
of a woman that that is in the She Dares program
and where she came from and where she is now.
>> Yes, let me share the story of Usha
and we just shared this at the launch of AWS,
just a couple of days back, Lisa.
So Usha worked for just two years
and the next 16 years of her life,
she devoted to bringing up her family.
A few years back, her husband suffered Parkinson's disease
and she realized that the entire weight of the family
was on her so she decided to join She Dares.
She decided to sign up
for the AWS cloud certification program.
How did she do it?
Well, she had the entire family's burden on her.
She worked night and day, but somehow she squeezed out hours
during the night where she would sit and study
and ensured that she got certified.
Remember, this was a woman who just spent two years
in the workforce and the next 16 years,
she had absolutely no connection with anything
that was even remotely career oriented.
But after getting certified and getting motivated
by the community of She Dares, she decided to give it a shot
and apply for a job with AWS.
Two days ago, she got her offer letter.
So today, she's proud-- >> What a fantastic story
going from two years in the workforce,
16 years taking care of her family
then the burden is on her with her husband falling ill
and she finds this opportunity.
I love the message there.
How do you talk to women who might be in similar situations
to Usha going, "I haven't been in the workforce
"for a really long time, Tech seems intimidating."
How do you help them achieve the courage to go forward
>> Lisa, it's the same five point model that we use.
If she can see it, she can be it.
If she can see a role model like Usha, a woman
who has been out of the workforce for a long time
finds the confidence, finds her voice and finds the ability
to just rise up above that adversity
and ensure that she jumps right back into the workforce.
>> And is Aspire For Her focused on STEM only,
or are you focused on all industries for women?
>> We are focused on all industries for women
and we like to look at fairly new age careers as well.
So whether it's an Instagram influencer,
whether it's somebody who's opened patisserie
for the best brownies in town,
we like to celebrate all women and all their career paths,
but STEM is a very important part of what we do
because we know that the STEM skills gap in India
and globally is a very serious problem
and if we train women and reskill women in STEM,
they will automatically gravitate towards those roles
which will open up in the India of tomorrow.
>> Are you able to reach young girls
like say in primary school and high school as well,
is this open to women of all ages?
>> It's open to women of all ages.
We like to start at the age 16
because that's when women start taking career decisions
whether it's about writing competitive exams
or whether it's about looking
at which colleges they will get into
so we like to start at 16
and there's really no age limit.
>> That's fantastic that there's no age limit
but also starting young.
One of the things that we know
about the tech industry is the percentage
of women in technical roles is quite low,
I believe it's below 25% and has been for quite some time.
We see that in a lot of countries
that drop off around the high school, 16 year age,
how do you help attract these young girls to be interested
in not just STEM but in creating a career for herself?
>> So we like telling a lot of stories, Lisa,
and there are constant nudges and triggers on our platform.
So today I'm speaking with you
and I'm sure that this will be beamed
across our platforms as well,
And people will look at Lisa
and say, "Hey Lisa is doing this fantastic thing as a host.
"And she's working with this great organization.
"Why can we not be like Lisa?"
And that's the way in which we motivate folks.
And we try to ensure
that every woman with a career story comes in
and is able to share her journey,
her path with our larger community
whether that's through mentorship sessions,
whether that's through role modeling,
whether it's through coaching,
whether it's through many fireside chats that we have,
we have a lot of workshops and webinars.
We are a COVID baby
so we are very digital and we love technology.
So that's how we try to create the community,
ensure that there is enough excitement
going every minute of the day.
It's a very buzzing, humming, active community
and we ensure that finally, everyone has that one thing
in mind: I have to be financially independent
and I cannot ever give up on my career.
>> I love that:
Be financially independent and not give up on my career.
You must be obviously, very intentionally,
you launched Aspire For Her,
you mentioned two years ago today, on the 8th of March, 2020
right in the very onset of COVID
but also on International Women's Day.
Talk to me a little bit
about why that was so important to launch
on that day in International Women's history month.
>> Well, when I was looking at the problem
that was staring at women in India
there's another interesting piece
of statistic that's struck,
which was that the percentage of women
in the workforce has been declining steadily in India.
And I thought that someone needed to do something
about that problem, and I thought that someone could be me.
I'm not a great one for symbols
but I thought that if we launch it on Women's day,
this will be a constant reminder for us
to strive harder to get to those numbers
quicker than we have set ourselves up for.
That's the reason why I decided
when the world was talking about women,
it's a great idea
for this to be like a conscience keeper for us.
>> Perfect timing.
Well, congratulations on all of the success
that you have achieved in just a short two year time period.
I can't wait to see what year three brings
and sign me up to be a mentor.
I'm a woman in STEM,
I'm a woman that hosts this program.
I would love to get involved and help encourage girls
and other women to follow their passion.
>> That is so amazing, Lisa, you are on
and we'd love to welcome you aboard as a mentor
>> Oh, excellent!
Lucky me, my lucky day.
Madhura, thank you so much
for talking with us about Aspire For Her,
and again, congratulations on all of your success.
>> Thank you.
>> And Madhura, you've got one final message
for AWS employees that you want to leave,
what is that?
>> Thank you, Lisa, for the question,
there is a message that I'd like to leave
for all AWS employees across the globe,
join us, be a part of our movement,
it takes about three minutes to sign up for Aspire For Her.
Please be a part of the change that you wish to see.
Thank you.
>> Well, Madhura again, it's been a pleasure talking to you.
Congratulations on the success,
the momentum that you have achieved
in such a short time period.
We appreciate your insights and your time.
>> Thank you so much, Lisa, thank you, thank you,
and I am going to send you the form
to become a mentor as well (chuckling).
>> I'm in, sign me up.
>> Thank you >> For Madhura DasGupta Sinha,
I'm, Lisa Martin, you're watching "theCUBE's" coverage
of International Women's Showcase, 2022.
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