Not every managerial woman who makes it has a mentor

The mentor relationship has been identified as an important contributor to job and career success. Compares managerial and professional women with and without mentors on a variety of measures. These include personal demographic and situational characteristics, work outcomes and aspects of psychological well‐being. Women having mentor relationships were younger, in higher level positions, had shorter job tenure, worked more hours and extra hours per week and attached higher priority to their careers. Women having mentor relationships also indicated more favourable work outcomes but similar levels of psychological well‐being. Results of logistic regression analysis revealed only two significant differences: women with mentors expressed more optimistic future career prospects and worked more extra‐hours per week. Concludes that potential benefits of mentoring for managerial and professional women may be smaller than suggested by proponents of mentoring.