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Challenging the gendered rhetoric of success? The limitations of women‐only mentoring for tackling gender inequality in the workplace

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  • Katherine Dashper

Abstract

Mentoring is widely acknowledged to be an important contributor to women's career success and progression, but women often struggle to access mentoring networks that can help sponsor and develop their careers. Formal mentoring programmes designed specifically for women help overcome this challenge, but such schemes may at the same time reinforce masculine discourses which position women as deficient in relation to the invisibly male norm that is implicit within contemporary working practices. Drawing on a formal women‐only mentoring programme built on gender‐positive goals to empower women to ‘be the best they can be’ within the events industry, this article considers the extent to which such programmes can both challenge and reproduce gendered discourses of business and success. Interviews with mentors and mentees illustrate how such programmes make gender visible within business and individual careers, but masculinist underpinnings of organizational discourses remain invisible, unacknowledged and thus largely unchallenged.

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine Dashper, 2019. "Challenging the gendered rhetoric of success? The limitations of women‐only mentoring for tackling gender inequality in the workplace," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 541-557, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:26:y:2019:i:4:p:541-557
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12262
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    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Pico-Saltos & Paúl Carrión-Mero & Néstor Montalván-Burbano & Javier Garzás & Andrés Redchuk, 2021. "Research Trends in Career Success: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-24, April.
    2. Mark Dean & Robert Perrett, 2020. "Overcoming barriers to women's workplace leadership: insights from the interaction of formal and informal support mechanisms in trade unions," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 169-184, May.
    3. Jansen Adela & Dima Alina Mihaela & Biclesanu Isabelle & Point Sebastien, 2022. "Career success through the past six decades: A bibliometric analysis," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 750-761, August.
    4. Colette Fagan & Nina Teasdale, 2021. "Women Professors across STEMM and Non-STEMM Disciplines: Navigating Gendered Spaces and Playing the Academic Game," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(4), pages 774-792, August.
    5. Belinda Steffan, 2021. "Managing menopause at work: The contradictory nature of identity talk," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 195-214, January.
    6. Mukhammadyusuf Shaymardanov & Suvi Heikkinen & Anna-Maija Lämsä, 2023. "Social Networks of Women in Organizations: Evolution of Research and Future Research Agenda," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 12(1), pages 97-112, April.
    7. Win Marc C. Cabilan & Jose F. Cuevas Jr & Jeffrey B. Aligo & George Adam V. Aguilar & Henson P. Camay & Normila D. Dianalan, 2023. "Gearing Towards Gender Equality: Insights from Female Police Officers in their Experiences at Their Workplaces," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(6), pages 28-44, June.
    8. Dinara Tokbaeva & Leona Achtenhagen, 2023. "Career resilience of female professionals in the male‐dominated IT industry in Sweden: Toward a process perspective," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 223-262, January.

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