Mentoring can be of great value to women and minority groups. These are the employees who have often been disenfranchised within organisations and have not been “chosen” by informal mentors.
Businesses currently lose approximately one-third of its women (source: EOWA Census) between middle management and senior management, creating a paucity of women in executive positions and in the pipeline. Talented women – women in whom organisations have invested – are making decisions to leave organisations whose cultures do not support women or their work/life balance.
At the same time, Catalyst, in a study of 353 Fortune 500 companies in America showed that “companies with a higher representation of women in senior management positions financially outperform companies with fewer women”. And that:
- There are significant barriers to women’s employment and advancement
- Having a mentor is a significant factor in assisting women to achieve leadership roles
- The barriers include a lack of both mentoring and of effective women role models