Feminism is a topic that throws every individual in a different direction. Some support it, some oppose it and a lot more make fun of it. But Sairee Chahal has been proving that feminism is all about more empowerment and less talking. She founded ‘Sheroes’, a combination of she and heroes, pledging to bring up all the female heroes. She was first hit with the idea while working for another venture of hers, Fleximoms, which had started as a pilot for women on a career break and to identify flexible work options for them.
Sairee is a renowned technology entrepreneur and holds an M.Phil from JNU and a PGDM from IMT, Ghaziabad. She worked for many corporate companies like Heidrick and Struggles and CII till 2005. In 2006, she returned to India when tech start-up’s were rising everywhere in the country and set up SAITA Consulting, a company established to help scale up tech startups by aiding them in building systems and processes. During her five year duration in SAITA, Sairee met a plethora of women applicants from whom she identified many of high caliber and eventually launched Fleximoms.
“The idea of SHEROES evolved from my previous venture Fleximoms which had started as a pilot for women on career break, to identify flex work options, work from home or those who were looking for more friendly opportunities. The core of our philosophy is to help women navigate career stages and find work that fits their life. SHEROES was launched in Jan 2014 with a focus on jobs, mentorship and career community. The journey has been encouraging and challenging at the same time.” says Sairee.
Later, Chahal came up with SHEROES based in Noida in January 2014 with the sole purpose of helping women navigate their professional roadmaps and find the best career for themselves. Sheroes has since launched the Campus SHEROES program, the SHEROES Report, expanded the SHEROES community to 1100 locations and created many wins for members and corporates.
Sheroes provides a platform for women to interact with each other. Apart from the job board, there are community meets, job fairs, special workshops and programs, coaching, mentoring, community resources to help women professionals. Over 300,000 women actively involve on the women only platform. Interactions with the community include offline events, mentoring opportunities, program building and hiring interactions along with over a million member service touch points the network has generated.
“The response from women has been great and is constantly getting better as more and more women benefit from it. It took a little time to share the category and concept of a career space for women. Word of mouth, online and social media have been significant ways to reach women. A member of SHEROES community could come in as an opportunity seeker, go on to interact with a mentor, identify the next course of action, may use the career resources to acquire an additional skill set and explore possibilities. They could also come back to share their experience, peer to peer mentor support and sometimes with even jobs.” adds Sairee.
Sairee is renowned globally and received numerous accolades, she is the recipient of Devi Award winner, the Femina Achievers Award, Cartier Award, Editor’s choice for L’Oreal Femina Women’s Award, Business Today and Most Powerful Women in Indian Business. In addition to these accolades, in 2018, she was ranked 53 on Onalytica’s “Future of Work Top 100 Influencers” list. She is also an Aspen Leadership Fellow and served as the convener of The SHEROES Summit – India’s largest women’s forum. She has spoken on the TEDx stage and has been featured in India Today as well.
Over a million women have been directly benefited thanks to SHEROES and under Sairee’s leadership, SHEROES aims to impact over 100 million women in the next five years. So sign up on the sheroes right away and spread the word to all the women you care!
