 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 Sena, 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. Happy birthday. Thank you, Lisa. Tell us a little bit about Aspire for her. 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. You know, 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 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 across 60 countries so far and we're talking about just on your second birthday, all of that you 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 noticed 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're 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 to the 3E is 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 the spin that you've taken on that. You've put that positive mindset, 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 called the power of parity report which McKinsey publishes from time to time. And I noticed some very interesting data on 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 you 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 its lofty goals? AWS has been an absolutely wonderful partner for us. And let me start by talking about the Shedez community. Their focus on diversity and their thought leadership has been absolutely wonderful for us. Well, the Shedez 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 Shedez community welcomes all women like this. It's very inclusive, all-embracing and that's what we love about building the community with AWS. It's 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 Shedez community in AWS. I love that. You've 10,000 members in two months, the Aspire for her program, none of them 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 is in the Shedez program and where she came from and where she is now. Yes, sir. 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 in her. So she decided to join Shedez. 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 Shedez, she decided to give it a shot and apply for a job with AWS. Two days ago, she got her offer letter. So today, 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 the adversity and ensure that she jumps right back into the workforce. And is this fire for her focused on STEM only or is that, or are you focused on all industries for women? We're focused in 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 the best, patisserie for the best brownies in town, we like to celebrate all women and all their career parts. 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 no age limits. 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 excited. Obviously, very intentionally, you launched Aspire for her. You mentioned two years ago today on the 8th of March, 2020, during 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 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 the 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're on and we'd love to welcome you aboard as a mentor. Oh, okay, excellent. Lucky me, my lucky day. Madura, thank you so much for talking with us about Inspire for Her and again, congratulations on all of your success. Thank you. And Madura, 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 Inspire for Her. Please be a part of the change that you wish to see. Thank you. Well, Madura, 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. I'm in, sign me up. From Madura, Dasguptasana, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of International Women's Showcase 2022.