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What Men Can Do to Be Better Mentors and Sponsors to Women
Rania H. AndersonDavid G. Smith
August 07, 2019
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Advocating for women’s advancement at work is integral for improving financial results, gender balance, and diversity in our workplaces and leadership teams. Yet data from the Working Mother Research Institute finds that, while 48% of men say they have received detailed information on career paths to P&L jobs in the past 24 months, just 15% of women report the same. And, while 54% of men had a career discussion with a mentor or sponsor in the past 24 months, only 39% of women did.
Why? Because leaders, the majority of whom are male and white, don’t adequately sponsor or mentor people who don’t look like them. Recent research from the Center for Talent Innovation reported that a full 71% of executives have protégés whose gender and race match their own. That means that women and minorities don’t benefit from sponsorship like their male colleagues do, and organizations lose out by not gaining the full potential of diverse talent.
Confusion about the #MeToo movement may have unintentionally exacerbated the situation. Two 2018 surveys by Lean In and Bloomberg Media found that, in the wake of those high-profile workplace sexual harassment and assault allegations, some men began to avoid professional work relationships with women. It was even a topic at the most recent World Economic Forum: senior male executives talked about avoiding one-on-one mentoring relationships as a risk management strategy.
This response is not productive. There are plenty of men who want to do what’s best for their businesses and employees. We find that sponsorship and advocacy make the biggest difference.