Women and mentoring—what you think you know might not be the case

If you’re a young female lawyer, should you seek out another woman to be your mentor? Should you expect to be friends with your mentor? Does your mentor need to be older than you?

The answer to all of these questions is “no, not necessarily,” according to an article posted on the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession Web site. Ida O. Abbott, author of “Women and Mentoring: Debunking the Myths,” stressed that, while a female mentor may have encountered similar gender-based experiences such as work-life conflicts and discrimination, focusing only on other women as potential mentors limits one unnecessarily. “A woman can learn a great deal from a male mentor or a woman whose life choices and style differ from her own,” writes Abbott.

While mentors can be friends – the two are not mutually exclusive. Abbott explains that friends “may be too close to see what is needed in a professional context, or may not want to jeopardize a friendship by giving feedback or advice that is critical.”

Abbott also refuted conventional thinking that mentors are older than their mentees: “Mentors can be any age, even quite a bit younger – so long as they are interested in helping others learn and advance and can move people toward their professional goals.”

Among the other myths that Abbott takes on include:

• A mentor ensures career success.
• Do good work, and a mentor will find you.
• The best role models make the best mentors.
• Good mentors are hard to find.
• Mentoring takes more time than busy lawyers can afford.

Read the entire article here.

Back to top

Back to home