Mentorship can be a career game-changer, leading to higher employee satisfaction and increased promotions.
However, women are less likely to receive mentorship than men, and it’s becoming a big problem for women in revenue-generating roles, such as marketing, sales, revenue operations, and customer success, a recent report warns.
Lacking support. Inadequate mentorship was the top challenge identified by women (44%) in revenue-generating roles, according to a survey of more than 750 women in such jobs from Women In Revenue, a nonprofit that advocates for the advancement of women in revenue-generating roles.
The issue of inadequate mentorship isn’t exactly new, but it’s become a bigger priority. Last year, for example, it was ranked by respondents as their fifth top concern.
While 77% of respondents said they thought a mentor might be helpful, 69% said they don’t currently have one. The women who’ve had mentoring said the experience helped them navigate a challenge (54%), achieve better work-life balance (20%), find a new job (15%), and land a promotion (10%).
“It’s really helpful to be able to have folks who carved that pathway already, to be able to lend a hand and say, ‘Here’s how I got here,’” Jamie Wigand, Women in Revenue’s executive director, told HR Brew.
Women in revenue-generating roles are facing other challenges that may be preventing them from accessing mentorship opportunities. Job instability was the second most common concern cited by respondents, with 21% reporting being laid off from their jobs last year, and around two-thirds saying their teams had been subjected to staff or budget cuts. The third most common challenge cited was a “lack of women in leadership roles.” Mentorship tends to be of particular interest to professionals during periods of uncertainty, the report noted, but when there are fewer women leaders to facilitate it, the desire may go unfulfilled.
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“It can be really difficult for women in senior roles to be able to carve out that time and that space if their employer isn't really making time for them,” Wigand said. “We’re all doing a lot, especially with the workforce feeling a little stretched thin generally, and then a lot of these women being in parenthood roles as well. It makes it a lot harder to make time for that. I think creating more of a priority around it would be really important.”
Bigger problem. Workers, in general, have cited inadequate career support as a motivator for wanting to quit.
Forty-three percent of respondents to Women In Revenue’s survey considered quitting in the last year. As respondents cited career progression and promotion as some of the most important benefits, second only to remote work, Wigand said employers can help boost retention by establishing clear advancement pathways and ensuring all employees are in the succession-planning pipeline—a simple, yet stark, reminder during an era when DEI rollbacks could impact such initiatives.
“We’re not asking for diversity hires, or diversity raises, or that it's just fair compensation. It's really best for the companies and their bottom line,” she said, noting that businesses with greater gender diversity in leadership outperform those that don’t. “When we’re looking at profitability and consumer happiness…it’s always proven that women in leadership roles is good for the organization as well.”