Equal Opportunities
Mentorship Benefits Both Women and Men, But It Does Not Close the Gender Gap, Researchers Say
by Sandie Taylor
For many MBA students, success means a big salary and an
upwardly mobile career. But many female MBAs continue to
experience a disparity in compensation and career
advancement.
Despite comprising 47 percent of the non-agriculture work force and boasting higher college graduation rates than men since 1982, women take home only 76 percent of what males earn. More striking, only 15 percent of women hold top positions as board members or CEOs at Fortune 500 companies—numbers that have scarcely changed in a decade.
Mentorship is often prescribed as a tool to close this gender gap. Mentors help protégés develop competencies, learn norms of corporate culture, introduce them to important individuals, and provide emotional support and encouragement. Historically, women haven’t enjoyed access to mentors in the same way as men have. But as women entered the corporate work force in greater numbers over the last 15 years, both the media and corporate managers averred the connections and guidance a mentor provides would help women advance.
That prediction hasn’t panned out. According to Paul Martorana, assistant professor of management at the McCombs School of Business, the mere presence of a career mentor does not consistently help women break through the glass ceiling when it comes to achieving pay equity and attaining executive roles.
Widening the Wages
In a field study of 722 alumni from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Martorana found that mentorship had an overall positive effect on the careers of both men and women. The researchers examined compensation (including salary and bonuses) of MBA graduates from their initial salaries after completing their MBAs to five years after graduation.
The results showed that females without mentors reported an average compensation increase of $35,304, whereas females with mentors earned $57,954 more than they had five years prior. However, for men, those without mentors reported an average increase of $58,431, and those with mentors earned $82,454 more after five years. Women with mentors did not even realize as much earnings growth as men without mentors.
As far as promotions go, both men and women with mentors gained more promotions than those who did not have mentors. But again, men with mentors received significantly more promotions than women with mentors did.
“There’s a benefit to having a mentor,” says Martorana, a member of the steering committee of the university’s Center for Women and Gender Studies. Both genders gain more promotions and financial compensation when they have mentors, he says, but the rate of salary growth and promotions between men and women has not equalized. “Women feel like they are being brought into the fold, but it’s not happening,” he adds. “It’s not even helping women gain equality.”
These results reflect a national trend. Within the last 10 years, the pay gap has not improved for college-educated women—in fact, the difference in earning power is greater today than it was a decade ago. According to a recent study by the Labor Department’s Economic Policy Institute, in 2005, college-educated women between 36 and 45 years old earned 74.7 cents in hourly pay for every dollar that men in the same group did. A decade earlier, women earned 75.7 cents to the dollar compared to men.
Past research on women’s careers choices find that stereotypes may explain this stagnation. A 1999 study published in the Journal of Management Inquiry reported that although women are perceived to be less interested in making risky career moves, female managers were, in fact, no less willing to relocate for work than male managers. Moreover, women did not turn down relocation offers more frequently than males—they were simply offered fewer relocation opportunities. In addition, the study showed that female managers were just as likely to seek employment outside of their firms as male managers. But women who were offered external positions were compensated with few benefits, whereas male managers benefited greatly, especially financially.
Even more discouraging is the fact that the United States seems to be lagging behind its international peers. Last year, the World Economic Forum released the Global Gender Gap Report 2006 with a list of the top 10 countries that are closest to achieving gender equality. The U.S. is conspicuously absent.
A Good Mentor is Hard to Find
As other countries get closer to achieving equality, it’s hard to say exactly why the U.S. gap has widened slightly in recent years. Research shows that even though more women are working in corporate America, it’s still difficult for women to find mentors.
“There may be the unfair perception that women will not become stars, and so others may not want to mentor them.” Martorana says.
In some organizations, the only employees chosen for mentorship experiences are “fast-track” individuals, and women are less likely to be considered part of that group. There’s also the obvious problem of having fewer women at the top available to mentor other females (although Martorana’s study examined women who had both male and female mentors). Women’s relatively sparse professional networks tend to limit the opportunity for referrals.
Women in senior management positions have the most trouble. “They’re always providing support but often don’t have other women above to mentor them,” Martorana suggests. In addition, women in upper management benefit from mentorship with salary growth but do not receive nearly as many promotions as mentored men or even mentored females in lower management.
Martorana says this appears to be due to a glass ceiling effect. “The top managers probably have a difficult time finding someone [male or female] to tell them what is needed to get promotions,” he says. “Or it could have something to do with when the [manager] got the job and how long she had been in upper management.” A woman hired into a high-level position may receive raises but not the highest level promotions, he adds.
Studies have also shown that men avoid mentoring females for a variety of reasons, including concerns about the perception of sexual innuendo and limited understanding of women’s challenges.
“Sexual innuendo is a big one,” Martorana explains. “Men may not feel comfortable closing the door [for private conversations with women], and they can’t chat with them in the locker room or men’s room either.”
Solutions for Success
So why are the results of mentorship so different for women and men? Martorana suggests men and women may have different relationships with a mentor. Whereas men may discuss career advancement-related issues and actually talk about real salary numbers, women may spend more time discussing social issues, such as work-life balance or relationships with a boss or co-worker.
The silver lining to the gender gap cloud may be the psycho-social support women get from mentors, which may have resulted in their increased job satisfaction. Women reported being slightly more satisfied with their mentorship experiences than men were despite the findings that mentored women may not receive the same quality of relationship as their male peers.
As women continue to seek mentors, it seems other solutions are still needed if women are to reach equal ground with men.
“Reducing the pay gap between men and women is a difficult project that requires constant vigilance,” Martorana says.
He says one approach to closing the gap might be for organizations to focus on de-institutionalizing the barriers that women face with a “gendered” work environment. For example, companies could use training programs to educate employees about research that disproves gender stereotypes, such as perceived differences between women’s and men’s rationality and emotional stability.
“Another organization consideration is to discontinue the common practice of increasing compensation as a percent of an employee’s initial or existing compensation,” he says. “Giving raises or bonuses that are a percent of existing compensation—rather than a lump sum amount—simply perpetuates the gender differences that persist from when one enters the organization.”
And instead of scrapping mentorship programs altogether, Martorana says companies might examine their goals for such programs. If the company is hoping to help women succeed, it could make its goals of the mentoring program explicit. That is, companies should not assume that mentors and protégés will always seek or provide the kind of help that results in career advancement or gender equality.
“If they want to improve protégés’ chances for promotions or if they want to reduce the gender wage gap for women protégés, then they should explicitly let mentors and protégés know that they should work towards those goals,” he says. “If they want to improve protégés’ job satisfaction and feelings of belonging, then they should make that goal explicit.”
Though men continue to earn significantly more than women and hold more of the top corporate positions, the women in this sample do appear to be more satisfied with their jobs. While the gender gap persists, increased job satisfaction is not an insignificant achievement.
Martorana’s research makes clear that mentorship has not yet succeeded in bridging the gender gap. Having a mentor can bring many rewards—but much work remains before the glass ceiling becomes a thing of the past.
Despite comprising 47 percent of the non-agriculture work force and boasting higher college graduation rates than men since 1982, women take home only 76 percent of what males earn. More striking, only 15 percent of women hold top positions as board members or CEOs at Fortune 500 companies—numbers that have scarcely changed in a decade.
Mentorship is often prescribed as a tool to close this gender gap. Mentors help protégés develop competencies, learn norms of corporate culture, introduce them to important individuals, and provide emotional support and encouragement. Historically, women haven’t enjoyed access to mentors in the same way as men have. But as women entered the corporate work force in greater numbers over the last 15 years, both the media and corporate managers averred the connections and guidance a mentor provides would help women advance.
That prediction hasn’t panned out. According to Paul Martorana, assistant professor of management at the McCombs School of Business, the mere presence of a career mentor does not consistently help women break through the glass ceiling when it comes to achieving pay equity and attaining executive roles.
Widening the Wages
In a field study of 722 alumni from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Martorana found that mentorship had an overall positive effect on the careers of both men and women. The researchers examined compensation (including salary and bonuses) of MBA graduates from their initial salaries after completing their MBAs to five years after graduation.
The results showed that females without mentors reported an average compensation increase of $35,304, whereas females with mentors earned $57,954 more than they had five years prior. However, for men, those without mentors reported an average increase of $58,431, and those with mentors earned $82,454 more after five years. Women with mentors did not even realize as much earnings growth as men without mentors.
As far as promotions go, both men and women with mentors gained more promotions than those who did not have mentors. But again, men with mentors received significantly more promotions than women with mentors did.
“There’s a benefit to having a mentor,” says Martorana, a member of the steering committee of the university’s Center for Women and Gender Studies. Both genders gain more promotions and financial compensation when they have mentors, he says, but the rate of salary growth and promotions between men and women has not equalized. “Women feel like they are being brought into the fold, but it’s not happening,” he adds. “It’s not even helping women gain equality.”
These results reflect a national trend. Within the last 10 years, the pay gap has not improved for college-educated women—in fact, the difference in earning power is greater today than it was a decade ago. According to a recent study by the Labor Department’s Economic Policy Institute, in 2005, college-educated women between 36 and 45 years old earned 74.7 cents in hourly pay for every dollar that men in the same group did. A decade earlier, women earned 75.7 cents to the dollar compared to men.
Past research on women’s careers choices find that stereotypes may explain this stagnation. A 1999 study published in the Journal of Management Inquiry reported that although women are perceived to be less interested in making risky career moves, female managers were, in fact, no less willing to relocate for work than male managers. Moreover, women did not turn down relocation offers more frequently than males—they were simply offered fewer relocation opportunities. In addition, the study showed that female managers were just as likely to seek employment outside of their firms as male managers. But women who were offered external positions were compensated with few benefits, whereas male managers benefited greatly, especially financially.
Even more discouraging is the fact that the United States seems to be lagging behind its international peers. Last year, the World Economic Forum released the Global Gender Gap Report 2006 with a list of the top 10 countries that are closest to achieving gender equality. The U.S. is conspicuously absent.
A Good Mentor is Hard to Find
As other countries get closer to achieving equality, it’s hard to say exactly why the U.S. gap has widened slightly in recent years. Research shows that even though more women are working in corporate America, it’s still difficult for women to find mentors.
“There may be the unfair perception that women will not become stars, and so others may not want to mentor them.” Martorana says.
In some organizations, the only employees chosen for mentorship experiences are “fast-track” individuals, and women are less likely to be considered part of that group. There’s also the obvious problem of having fewer women at the top available to mentor other females (although Martorana’s study examined women who had both male and female mentors). Women’s relatively sparse professional networks tend to limit the opportunity for referrals.
Women in senior management positions have the most trouble. “They’re always providing support but often don’t have other women above to mentor them,” Martorana suggests. In addition, women in upper management benefit from mentorship with salary growth but do not receive nearly as many promotions as mentored men or even mentored females in lower management.
Martorana says this appears to be due to a glass ceiling effect. “The top managers probably have a difficult time finding someone [male or female] to tell them what is needed to get promotions,” he says. “Or it could have something to do with when the [manager] got the job and how long she had been in upper management.” A woman hired into a high-level position may receive raises but not the highest level promotions, he adds.
Studies have also shown that men avoid mentoring females for a variety of reasons, including concerns about the perception of sexual innuendo and limited understanding of women’s challenges.
“Sexual innuendo is a big one,” Martorana explains. “Men may not feel comfortable closing the door [for private conversations with women], and they can’t chat with them in the locker room or men’s room either.”
Solutions for Success
So why are the results of mentorship so different for women and men? Martorana suggests men and women may have different relationships with a mentor. Whereas men may discuss career advancement-related issues and actually talk about real salary numbers, women may spend more time discussing social issues, such as work-life balance or relationships with a boss or co-worker.
The silver lining to the gender gap cloud may be the psycho-social support women get from mentors, which may have resulted in their increased job satisfaction. Women reported being slightly more satisfied with their mentorship experiences than men were despite the findings that mentored women may not receive the same quality of relationship as their male peers.
As women continue to seek mentors, it seems other solutions are still needed if women are to reach equal ground with men.
“Reducing the pay gap between men and women is a difficult project that requires constant vigilance,” Martorana says.
He says one approach to closing the gap might be for organizations to focus on de-institutionalizing the barriers that women face with a “gendered” work environment. For example, companies could use training programs to educate employees about research that disproves gender stereotypes, such as perceived differences between women’s and men’s rationality and emotional stability.
“Another organization consideration is to discontinue the common practice of increasing compensation as a percent of an employee’s initial or existing compensation,” he says. “Giving raises or bonuses that are a percent of existing compensation—rather than a lump sum amount—simply perpetuates the gender differences that persist from when one enters the organization.”
And instead of scrapping mentorship programs altogether, Martorana says companies might examine their goals for such programs. If the company is hoping to help women succeed, it could make its goals of the mentoring program explicit. That is, companies should not assume that mentors and protégés will always seek or provide the kind of help that results in career advancement or gender equality.
“If they want to improve protégés’ chances for promotions or if they want to reduce the gender wage gap for women protégés, then they should explicitly let mentors and protégés know that they should work towards those goals,” he says. “If they want to improve protégés’ job satisfaction and feelings of belonging, then they should make that goal explicit.”
Though men continue to earn significantly more than women and hold more of the top corporate positions, the women in this sample do appear to be more satisfied with their jobs. While the gender gap persists, increased job satisfaction is not an insignificant achievement.
Martorana’s research makes clear that mentorship has not yet succeeded in bridging the gender gap. Having a mentor can bring many rewards—but much work remains before the glass ceiling becomes a thing of the past.
