March is the annual celebration of Women’s History Month.  The Month encourages the celebration of the contributions, achievements, and struggles of women throughout history and modern society.  It looks to correct historical omissions, celebrate diversity, and promote gender equality.  It also aims to empower future generations and highlight the diverse, crucial roles women play in society.

The theme for 2026’s Women’s History Month is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.”  This theme honours women who are driving, rebuilding, and reimagining systems for environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

One of the ways women can drive, rebuild and reimagine systems is through mentoring – being a mentor and having a mentor.  So this month, we would particularly like to encourage women to step forward to mentor.

Mentoring has so many benefits for the mentor and mentee, including providing professional and personal growth for both.  For mentors, it also:

• Provides high levels of satisfaction and fulfilment from investing in the mentee and supporting their growth and development
• Develops their coaching, communication, interpersonal and leadership skills
• Supports their career advancement through building a reputation as a leader, and through expanding their professional networks
• Encourages the mentor to look at their own career, knowledge and skills and consider their next steps.

So with all these benefits, what particularly stops women from becoming a mentor?  These are some of the common reasons:

• Time is one of the biggest reasons. Women are more likely to be balancing demanding multiple roles, not just in the workplace but also at home and caring for children and/or elderly parents.
• There can also be a fear that mentoring is an open-ended commitment, but this does not need to be the case, at the start of the mentoring relationship, the mentor and mentee should agree timelines and levels of commitment.
• Bandwidth can not be underestimated, particularly for potential mentors who may be suffering hormone fluctuations/reductions. Studies have shown that menopause severely impacts bandwidth including cognitive capacity, energy, and work performance, with 67% of UK working women aged 40 to 60 reporting negative effects.  This can prevent women from wanting to take-on the burden of thinking and possibly worrying about the mentee’s journey.
• Imposter Syndrome – the publication Psychology Today suggests that 70% of us, regardless of gender, will feel imposter syndrome at some point in our lives. However, the journal Current Research in Behavioural Sciences published a systematic review of decades of research into imposter syndrome, which showed that women consistently scored higher on measures of imposter syndrome.
• In many business sectors there is a shortage of women in senior roles, and as a result there are fewer available mentors. This can also perpetuate competition between women, rather than collaboration, where the women are forced to compete for a few top roles, preventing women from helping junior women.
• An article for Forbes Coaching Council which considered why some women may be disinclined to mentor, also suggested that women may be more likely than men to focus on their current role, rather than their long-term career aspirations, ie. working diligently in the here-and-now, rather than networking and grabbing projects which will help accelerate their careers, including being a mentor to others.

Despite all these barriers to mentoring, we would ask all to consider the benefits of mentoring and to reflect on how mentoring supports this year’s theme for International Women’s Day on 8th March – The Give to Gain Campaign. This Campaign aims to encourage a mindset of generosity and collaboration – a theme which is at the heart of mentoring. A mentor has so much knowledge and so many skills and contacts, to support a mentee, helping them to grow and develop.