Abstract

Research regarding gender and mentoring suggests that women are mentored less often than their male colleagues, which could have a detrimental effect on women’s career development and growth. Although researchers have proposed different explanations and solutions to ease this phenomenon, women continue to report being under-mentored. In an effort to understand this issue in depth, two exploratory qualitative study were conducted. In the first study, twenty women holding tenure track academic positions in seven different business schools in Canada and the United States were interviewed to understand their experiences with mentoring. Through content analysis of the data, the existence of a type of barrier previously unidentified in the literature was unearthed, namely barriers to the development of the mentoring relationship. Two barriers to the development of a mentoring relationship, Need for Fit and Demonstrating Capability, are described and discussed in this study. Given these findings, a second study was designed in order to gain in-depth knowledge on barriers to the development of mentorships. Thirty three men and women from different organizations, industries and professions were invited to participate. The data from this second study supports the existence of barriers to the development of mentorship. The data signal the existence of the two barriers identified in Study 1, Need for Fit and Demonstrating Capability, while it also suggests the existence of four other barriers, Commitment of the Mentor, Trust in the Mentor, Need to Share a Goal/Vision and Admiration towards the Mentor. The relevance of these barriers seems to vary by gender and organizational context which would explain why women would be under-mentored when compared to their male colleagues. Implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed.