What keeps female founders from becoming mentors?
January is always a good time for new mentors on MentorCruise.com, as folks set aside some time over the holidays to review their priorities and might have the spare time to fill out a mentoring profile and help some people out in the new year.
This January has been no different, with over 120 new mentors looking to join the network. However, I've found that a crushing majority of them were men.
I've seen this in the past that even if I directly approached a female founder or maker I'm looking up to, the responses have been mostly negative ("I don't think I'm ready", "I wouldn't make a good mentor").
Which is super odd – cause even though probably less than 20% of the MentorCruise network consists of women, they make up half of highly-rated top mentors.
Just wondering – if formal mentoring or coaching would be up your alley, what's the big blocker for you?
Not a blocker for me per se, but I think it really becomes ingrained for women to question themselves overall or struggle with imposter syndrome. That's a problem everyone faces for sure, but how many women you know hedge their statements with "I think" or "Maybe." I've had to train myself out of that habit.
Also, pairing with that, being a mentor feels like such a decisive, powerful thing with no room for insecurity or questioning. But that's not even true either. Good mentors are continuously learning and questioning and growing themselves. We just need better support systems for helping women in business both see that mentoring is attainable, and that they're more than capable of doing it.
Appreciate your reply! Really hope to do better specifically helping to overcome and mitigate imposter syndrome. You are 100% right, mentors are not flawless. They are often just a couple steps ahead in a journey where any advice is valued.
Sometimes you learn more from a mentee than you realized! And we're all just figuring out things together anyway, so I try to position things as collaboration, even in a mentorship relationship