Mentorship offers valuable support for professionals across various backgrounds, career stages, and industries, helping them grow and reach their objectives. For women in tech, mentorship is crucial for navigating industry-specific challenges.
Although there are more women in tech today than in previous decades, the proportion of women to men in the technology sector is lower than it was nearly 35 years ago. CompTIA’s 2023 State of the Tech Workforce report indicates that women made up 26% of the tech labor force in 2023 (Source). In contrast, a report from the American Association of University Women shows that in 1990, women constituted 35% of tech workers (Source).
Kristina Robinson, a Software Engineering Manager and Upnotch™ Mentor, feels that creating a community of women and non-binary mentors and mentees is essential to empower each other in an industry where they are underrepresented and often under-supported.
Not only is the percentage of women in tech decreasing compared to recent decades, according to McKinsey & Company and Lean In’s Women in the Workplace 2023 report, the percentage of women in tech decreases with career progression.
Many women leave tech by or before their mid-thirties, and “that is like something we really absolutely need to address,” Robinson said. “Sometimes it's childcare, sometimes it's elder care, sometimes it's some other kind of life event that happens and they feel like, ‘well, I don't have the support to be able to do this really intensive job and deal with my life.’”
“There can be things like lack of empathy and lack of knowledge about so many things that are specific to being a woman,” she said reflecting on her experience. “And if you don't have somebody who has that experience or is aware of all of those issues, then it can be very isolating to try to work in that kind of environment.”
“As a woman,” Robinson said, “I know that when I first started in tech, I just felt like being a woman was really no big deal and that things were essentially gender agnostic. But the longer I've been in, the more I look around and think, ‘Well, If nobody else differentiates among genders, then why are there so few women?’”
There are so many campaigns to help inspire women in STEAM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics] fields these days, that we just sort of assume that it's increasing when really it's not,” she said.
Closing the gender gap in tech through mentorship at all career stages
Mentorship is critical for professionals at all stages of their career, whether they are just starting as professionals, mid-career, looking to change roles or industries, or even at the executive level.Robinson first discovered the power of mentorship to help accelerate her career as a young developer. Remembering how she met her first mentor, she said, “I was in my second job, working at a startup and my boss was the most amazing boss. He was empathetic, he was encouraging, he was transparent in his decision making.”
“When I left that company and he left that company, I stayed in touch with him because I said, ‘you have been one of the most influential people in my life and I really appreciate your judgment,’ and he was always very generous with his time. So I called him every time I needed to make a job change. And also I would call him occasionally when I was just really struggling with – maybe a relationship or a bad boss,” Robinson explained.
“And along the way the last 30 years I've just accumulated more and more mentors as I go along: some of them have been for just a certain period of time,” she continued..” Some of them have been lifelong. And all of them have provided a sounding board, another experience, another point of view.”
Mentors have not just helped Robinson entering tech, be returning to the workforce, and achieving or goals of working in management-level positions.
“I myself took a 10 year break,” she said. “ And then I came back and I came back as an individual contributor coding. And I made that a deliberate choice because I wanted to make sure that, especially as I transition into management, that my skills were the most current.”
“Tech is changing all the time. It's so rapidly changing. And having been out for 10 years, I felt like I didn't know any of the tools, I didn't know any of the tips and tricks, I didn't know the new environments, I didn't know the newest languages,” she said. “Coming back as a developer was a deliberate choice, and I’m glad I did it that way, but it was hard. It was hard to perform as an individual contributor having been gone for so long.”
Her mentors helped her upskill, get the confidence she needed, and overcome challenges she encountered re-entering the workforce. Robinson confessed, “I certainly had imposter syndrome and I certainly had stress, and many days when I think, ‘I can't do this! Oh my God, what am I doing? This is ridiculous!’”
“But I did have a couple of mentors at that point and they would just say, ‘You know what? This is temporary. You will get up to speed. Everyone feels swayed at the beginning of any new job. Just hang in there.’ And that was really valuable for me. Now I'm in management and I feel like I'm a better manager because of the experiences that I've had.”
Making mentorship official and supplementing employee resource groups
As more employers increasingly see the benefit of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, more businesses are exploring solutions to improve their people culture and better support their staff. Two of the most powerful, popular initiatives to support DEI are mentorship programs and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) – self-led communities designed to support affinity groups.
Robinson feels that ERGs are essential to uplift historically underrepresented and/or marginalized communities, but also that formalized mentorship programs must be available to supplement what ERGs offer.
“I'm a big supporter of women in tech,” she said. “I have been co-lead of an employee resource group for women engineers and have helped provide a space for women non-binary engineers to just come and say, ‘I'm feeling this way,’ and have their feelings validated and potentially work on a path forward if that's what they want or if they just need to be heard.
“Whether it's women, women engineering, whether it's non-binary, or any kind of underrepresented groups – there are a variety of ways to slice and dice up your group employees to create support through ERGs. But I’ve always had mentoring alongside that.”
Some organizations may lack the capacity to create ERGs that serve some employees and communities. “Your company may not have enough people to have a LGBTQ self-identifying ERG, or a trans-centric or non-binary specific ERG. If there's not enough then you have to strategically think, ‘Okay, well how can we support staff in the best ways?”
Mentorship provides perfectly-tailored solutions to meet the needs of individual team members, teams, and communities. And, while professionals occasionally benefit from informal guidance, support, and mentorship, Robinson insists that a formalized mentor-mentee relationship through a formal program will have greater potential impact than informal ones.
“If there was not a formal program, then I would go and look for a more formal program,” Robinson said. “Informal mentors can add a lot of value. But the thing that I really like about having a formal mentorship program is there is more accountability. There is more structure. You know they're encouraged to meet your mentor at least once a month or you know every other week or once a quarter. There's some framework that allows some additional expectations to be placed,” compared to informal mentorships.
“A formal mentorship program is great because it really provides some structure and some expectation setting,” she explained. “I know a lot of people who feel like, ‘I don't really know what I'm supposed to get out of my mentorship.’ So if you have a formal program, people go, “Oh, okay, that's what I'm supposed to talk to my mentor about. Oh, this is what I'm supposed to get out of this relationship – versus with an informal one, where it's kind of hit or miss what you feel like you can expect.
Inclusive approaches to thinking about gender in tech
Today, workplaces are becoming more and more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. But every professional and every organization is constantly learning how to be more accepting and supporting of others with different backgrounds and lived experiences.Robinson has felt fortunate to help create change for tech workers with diverse gender identities and expressions, including non-binary and trans professionals. “It’s always personally enriching to be in a relationship with people who have a different background than I do,” Robinson said. “They help me understand the world better.”
Reflecting on diversity of gender and sexuality, Robinson said, “The world is changing – always. To have visibility into the thoughts and feelings and process and journeys of other types of underrepresented populations can be super eye-opening.Robinson said that expanding her perspectives, especially through mentorship and ERGs, “allows me to have more empathy and to become a better champion because I am aware of those people who maybe in the past I didn't even realize that they needed a champion. And, it helps me be the person in the room who says. “Hey – we need to make sure and take care of this particular angle, or please don't assume that this applies universally to everyone in the room.”
Making mentorship accessible to diverse tech workers
Even though mentorship is essential for all professionals, accessing mentorship is not always easy. Only 16% of women receive sponsorship/mentorship they need, compared to 23% of men, and only 22% of women receive useful feedback compared to 31% of men, according to the Women in the Workplace 2023 report from McKinsey (Source).
That’s why Upnotch™ is free for all individual professionals to join so they can find mentors they need to help them achieve their goals, or give back by being a mentor themselves.
Upnotch™ has a global roster of mentors who are excited to share their time, knowledge, and experience with others in order to create ripple effects in their industries and beyond. In a few taps on any device, users can search for a mentor with the exact insights and skills. Because the success of every mentorship is dependent upon mentor-mentee compatibility, using Upnotch™’s filters, users can search for mentors and mentees with similar gender identities or share other aspects of identity, background, or experience.
Members can also join communities on Upnotch™ or create their own in order to connect with the people with similar backgrounds, interests, and goals. One of the most popular and fastest growing communities on Upnotch™ is Women in Tech, which includes free, regular speed mentoring events which almost always reach maximum capacity.
We can close the gender gap in tech and achieve global equity using the power of mentorship as a proactive solution. Join Upnotch™ today to share knowledge, help each other grow, and create equity in tech and beyond.
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