Over-Mentored, Under-Sponsored: Why Women Aren’t Advancing to Leadership

By WOI+ Editorial Team

The Limits of Mentorship

For years, mentorship has been celebrated as the golden ticket to career advancement. Leaders guide, offer advice, and share their journeys, believing that preparation is the key to advancement. But preparation isn’t the same as opportunity. While mentorship teaches women how to lead, it rarely positions them to actually step into leadership roles.

That leap requires sponsorship — active advocacy from senior leaders who are willing to use their influence to open doors and secure opportunities. Without it, mentorship becomes an endless cycle of preparation without progression. Yet, for too many women, this kind of high-stakes advocacy remains out of reach.

McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report makes this disparity stark. Women hold just 29 per cent of C-suite roles, with men outnumbering them at every rung of the corporate ladder. This gap exists across race, ethnicity, and industries. And sponsorship — or the lack of it — is a driving force behind this persistent imbalance.

Mentorship Prepares. Sponsorship Propels.

The difference between mentorship and sponsorship isn’t just semantics. It’s impact.

Mentorship is rooted in advice and guidance. A mentor might help someone refine their leadership style, navigate challenges, or build confidence. Sponsorship, on the other hand, is about action. A sponsor takes a more decisive role — they advocate behind closed doors, connect their protégés to influential networks, and speak their names in the proverbial rooms of opportunity.

Sponsorship is inherently risky. Sponsors are putting their reputations on the line for someone else. And all too often, women — especially women of colour — are excluded from these powerful relationships.

The Over-Mentored, Under-Sponsored Trap

It’s not that women aren’t being supported. The issue is how they’re being supported.

Organizations frequently lean on mentorship programs to help advance women, emphasizing skill-building and career guidance. While these programs are valuable, they often stop short of offering the one thing women need most to advance: access.

This imbalance creates a cycle of frustration. Women are often over-prepared but under-positioned — ready to lead but unable to find a way in.

Why does this disparity persist?

Bias in Sponsorship Relationships.
Sponsors tend to advocate for people who remind them of themselves — a phenomenon sometimes referred to as “mini-me bias.” For senior leaders, who are still predominantly men, this often means men are more likely to be chosen for sponsorship.

Fear of Risk
Sponsorship is a high-stakes relationship. A sponsor’s reputation is tied to the performance of their protégé, and unconscious bias can amplify fears about advocating for women in male-dominated spaces.

The Myth of “Readiness”
Women are often expected to “prove” themselves before being considered for leadership roles, while men are promoted based on potential. Based on surveys of more than 15,000 employees in the U.S., 38 per cent of working women encounter remarks or interactions that challenge their competence or undermine their leadership, versus 26 per cent of men who report the same. This double standard slows women’s advancement at every stage of their careers.

The Cost of Under-Sponsorship

The lack of sponsorship isn’t just an individual challenge — it’s a systemic problem with far-reaching consequences.

Stagnation
Without sponsorship, women are consistently overlooked for promotions, critical assignments, and high-profile opportunities.

Talent Drain
Frustrated by the lack of advancement, many talented women leave their organizations, taking their skills and perspectives elsewhere. A study by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org found that approximately 10.5 per cent of female leaders in senior management positions and above voluntarily left their companies, compared to 9 per cent of male leaders.

Missed Opportunities for Innovation
Diverse leadership teams deliver better outcomes. When organizations fail to sponsor women into senior roles, they lose out on the innovation and perspective that only diversity can bring.

What Needs to Change

If we’re serious about closing the gender gap in leadership, organizations need to rethink their approach. Sponsorship must move from a nice-to-have to a non-negotiable.
Here’s where to start:

1. Make Sponsorship Intentional
   Relying on informal networks perpetuates inequities. Structured programs can ensure women  —  especially those from underrepresented groups — have access to senior leaders who will advocate for them.
   
2. Challenge Bias in Leadership Pipelines
   Organizations must rethink the idea of “readiness.” Leadership is built through experience, not perfection. Women shouldn’t have to meet higher — or different — standards than their male peers to be recognized as equally capable and deserving of opportunities.

3. Hold Sponsors Accountable
   Leaders should be measured not just by their own performance, but by how they develop and advance diverse talent. Progress must be measurable, tied to retention, promotion rates, and representation at the top.

4. Pair Sponsorship with Mentorship
   Mentorship equips women to lead; sponsorship ensures they’re positioned to do so. Women need both to reach their full potential. Both are essential, but they must work in tandem.

Mentorship alone won’t close the leadership gap. Women don’t need more advice; they need advocates willing to take action. Without active advocacy, women remain confined to roles that fail to leverage their full potential.

It’s what transforms readiness into leadership, ambition into advancement. Organizations that embrace sponsorship as a deliberate strategy won’t just see more women in senior roles — they’ll see stronger, more dynamic leadership at every level.

The question isn’t whether women are ready. It’s whether leaders are ready to advocate for them.

Leadership isn’t where you stand; it’s who you move forward.