A societal change like workplace equality doesn’t happen all at once. But steps need to be taken to ensure that the momentous progress made is steadily improved.

Amazon Web Services Inc. is taking the lead and doubling down on an inclusive recruitment philosophy.

“We are studying to push harder, to bring more information to the ladies, to the women in general and also to start developing their technical skills,” said Cindy Polin (pictured,  left), senior manager solutions architect for public sector at AWS. “It’s really difficult, and in the moment that you try to do this, you start seeing these behaviors or stigmas against women. So we are trying to start breaking this point in general.”

Polin and Fernanda Spinardi (pictured, right), head of solutions architecture, Brazil, at AWS, spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the Women in Tech: International Women’s Day event. They discussed how to get more women into technical STEM careers.

Changing hearts and minds

Recent statistics show that only 3 out of 10 people looking to get into STEM fields are women, according to Polin. At face value, this number could certainly use a boost, especially in regions like Latin America, where there’s a slightly wider gap. There’s a potentially massive wealth of unexplored brainpower just waiting to be called upon.

Within its LATAM markets, AWS is heavily invested in its early-in-career talent programs, according to Spinardi.

“We have the opportunity to work with them for one year — sometimes for two years — in a role, she said. “While they work, they are still in the university and we prepare that talent really early in their career and bring them to be part of Amazon. So, yeah, I’m super excited about those programs.”

Alongside equipping them with the technical chops, these women are also instilled with a dogged mindset capable of initiative and out-of-the-box thinking, something the future workplace will require, Polin and Spinardi pointed out.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Women in Tech: International Women’s Day event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE