Mentoring is crucial for the development of any professional, but especially so for women who are looking to break through the glass ceiling.  Alas, research from RMIT University suggests that potential male mentors might be put off by fears surrounding the #MeToo movement.

“Workplace relations between males and females have changed over the past two years. Male managers are significantly less likely than female managers to mentor or interact one-on-one with female employees,” the researchers say.

“We found that male managers were less likely to work one-on-one in an office with the door closed and less likely to have a late-night dinner with female employees.”

Mentoring opportunities

Despite this apparently barren territory for mentoring, the researchers report that many female employees did nonetheless report that male colleagues were willing to mentor them.

In total, they quizzed over 2,000 participants from across the United States, with two surveys administered in total.  The first of these was sent purely to female employees, while the second was sent to a mixture of male and female managers.

The surveys were distributed roughly a year after the #MeToo movement was ignited by the exposure of sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood.  Female respondents were asked to reveal how comfortable they would be to be mentored by a male colleague.

Changing times

The results reveal that nearly 40% believed that their interactions with male colleagues were different to the pre-#MeToo era.  With a relatively small number (11%) saying that they would be uncomfortable being mentored by an older male colleague.

“Women are clearly still willing to be mentored by older males, but opportunities for such mentoring may not be as forthcoming—as seen in our second survey,” the researchers say.

The second survey, which was distributed to both male and female managers, included a dozen photographs of employees.  The participants were asked three mentoring-related questions for each person in the photos.

The female participants expressed a greater willingness to mentor female employees than they did their male peers.  This was mirrored by the male managers, who revealed they would feel more comfortable mentoring male colleagues than female colleagues.  This was especially so if the mentoring might place them in compromising situations, such as engaging in meetings behind closed doors.

“Although we can’t say with absolute certainty whether the #MeToo movement caused this reluctance, it seems reasonable to conclude that it may have played a role,” the researchers conclude.