E-Mentoring Women: Lessons Learned From A Pilot Program

Abstract

Mentoring has been identified as a key strategy for career development and organizational advancement and has been argued to be indispensable for women to succeed. E-mentoring has increased in popularity as a means of increasing access to mentors, especially female, and reducing some of the challenges associated with being mentored by men. Although access to mentors and mentoring is considerably improved in an e-mentoring environment, it is unclear if the quality and effectiveness of e-mentoring matches traditional mentoring. This qualitative study examines the overall effectiveness of an e-mentoring program focusing on providing psycho-social and career-development support to female mentees, developing trust in a virtual environment, and the mentee/mentor matching process.