Understanding the dynamics and benefits of cross-gender mentoring relationships on the advancement of women

Abstract

Gender inequality at senior levels continues to plague organisations even though most graduates are women and more women than men are entering the workplace. Mentoring is a powerful tool to facilitate and increase the advancement of women to leadership positions; however, women have barriers to accessing mentoring. Organisations have addressed this through significant investment in formal mentorship programs. Due to the limited number of women in senior positions, women end up in cross-gender mentoring relationships. Mentoring does not always yield positive results for the mentor and protege. Some mentoring experiences are average, or negative, especially in diversified mentoring relationships. Understanding the dynamics of cross-gender mentoring relationships will ensure that the designed programs result in effective mentoring outcomes, addressing gender inequality in organisations. Most of the research in this space has investigated the benefits of mentoring for the protege, omitting the mentor’s voice. The objective of this cross-sectional qualitative exploratory research was to understand the dynamics and the benefits of cross-gender mentoring on the advancement of women. A total of 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with men and women involved in mentoring relationships in companies in South Africa. The study found that the quality of the relationship in cross-gender mentorship resulted in specific outcomes of mentoring, such as career support, psychological support, and role modelling. Cross-gender mentoring relationships can be effective in delivering highquality mentoring outcomes if the quality of the relationship is high. Furthermore, the study findings revealed that women do not require or desire to be in same-gender mentoring relationships due to a lack of evidence to support matching on gender, queen bee syndrome and female proteges’ reluctance to acquire female mentors. Finally, mentors benefit from the relationship through the satisfaction of advancing women’s careers, expanding their own network, learning new skills, and receiving friendship from their proteges.