The Vedica Women's Alliance felicitates extraordinary women with V-WA 50

A study by the Pew Research Center in 2015 found that motherhood and family-related responsibilities did not necessarily hinder a woman's career trajectory. Nonetheless, women had to work twice as hard to prove themselves. Women have made major advances in the workplace, yet, in 2021 only 10 per cent of the management roles in India were held by women (Catalyst, March 2022). Despite being highly qualified and highly capable, there has been a conspicuous absence of women as decision-makers.

A study by the Pew Research Center in 2015 found that motherhood and family-related responsibilities did not necessarily hinder a woman's career trajectory. Nonetheless, women had to work twice as hard to prove themselves. Women have made major advances in the workplace, yet, in 2021 only 10 per cent of the management roles in India were held by women (, March 2022). Despite being highly qualified and highly capable, there has been a conspicuous absence of women as decision-makers.

The V-WA 50, launched by the Vedica Women's Alliance (V-WA), is an initiative to make women visible by recognising, rewarding, and amplifying their accomplishments to create a cadre of women professionals who will be role models for succeeding generations of women. "The motto of making women visible addresses issues that we are facing beyond the workplace. It addresses economic participation, domestic work, childcare as a gendered act, travel in public places, and really - the everyday lives of women in a very significant although nuanced way. Making women visible is an act of claiming public life by women and declaring the right to lead a life which is free of the weight of gendered roles and biases - at home as well as in the workplace," said Anuradha Das Mathur, Founder of the Vedica Women's Alliance and the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women, as she closed the felicitation ceremony of the V-WA 50 on Friday, June 3, 2022. The Vedica Women's Alliance (V-WA) is a women's network for senior professionals that aims to advance personal and professional success while providing opportunities to create lasting impact. It aggregates the voices of those women who hold positions of power to advocate for ecosystem change. The V-WA 50 was aimed to further this endeavour and highlight that women deserve to be where decisions are made. The guest of honour for the event was the celebrated Indira Jaising, a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India. Indira Jaising has been a champion for gender equality and human rights. She discussed role models, microaggressions against women in the workplace, and the change that women in positions of power can affect. "We break the glass ceiling not because we love to see shattered glass everywhere and glass ceilings don't break when one woman makes it. Glass ceilings break when all of us have made it," said Indira Jaising in conversation with Shoma Chaudhury (Senior Advisor, Vedica Women's Alliance). The V-WA 50 awarded high-achieving senior professionals across 10 categories, including science, technology and R&D, professional services, health and wellness, and diversity and inclusion. There was an additional Men of Impact category that recognises the role of allies in the feminist movement and celebrates men who have advocated for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. A special category, the V-WA 50 Lifetime Achievement Award, honoured women whose vision and contributions have left a unique legacy in their fields. This year's Lifetime Achievement Award winners were - Meena Ganesh, Vedika Bhandarkar, Camellia Panjabi, Priya Paul, and Arundhati Bhattacharya. The awardees were selected by a panel of 15 jurors, comprising eminent industry leaders, who evaluated approximately 130 nominations. The guiding principle for the jury was to look for exceptional stories, evidence that the candidate has sparked change, and that they are inspiring many more women towards success. In bringing together these exemplary leaders, V-WA 50 aims to create a community of leaders that is a force for change and contributes toward building a more gender-balanced world, and most definitely, workplaces. To view the full programme, please visit:

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( With inputs from ANI )