Red Flag: We Are Overmentored and Undersponsored.
Why mentorship alone isn't enough—and what women actually need to move forward.
Someone has sat with you. Listened to you. Told you that you are doing well, that you have what it takes, that your time will come. And then they went back into the room where the decisions are made and did not say your name.
That is the gap. And it is costing women, particularly those from underrepresented communities, far more than most organizations are willing to acknowledge.
I have written an entire book about mentorship. I believe in it deeply. The Mentor’s Journey: From Learning to Leading grew out of my own experience of being guided, supported, and encouraged by people who saw something in me before I could see it clearly myself. That kind of relationship matters. It genuinely changes lives.
But I have also watched too many talented women spend years accumulating advice, feedback, and encouragement, while people with less experience and less ability are quietly moved forward by someone who put their name on a shortlist, backed them in a room, and said: this one is ready.
That is not a mentorship problem. That is a sponsorship gap. And it is time we named it clearly.
“Mentorship tells you what to do. Sponsorship does it with you. One changes your thinking. The other changes your trajectory.”
Let’s be clear about what we mean
Mentorship
Someone gives you their time, experience, and guidance. They help you think through decisions, build confidence, and navigate your field. It is valuable. It is also a conversation. It does not move you forward on its own.
Sponsorship
Someone uses their social capital, their access, and their credibility to advocate for you in rooms you are not in. They recommend you for opportunities. They say your name when it counts. That is a fundamentally different act.
Why women get more mentors and fewer sponsors
This is not accidental. It reflects something real about how organizations work and who they trust with risk.
Sponsoring someone is a bet. When a senior person puts their name behind yours, they are putting their own credibility on the line. And the uncomfortable truth is that people tend to place those bets on people who remind them of themselves—people they already trust, people who feel familiar.
Women, particularly women from underrepresented groups, do not fit that familiar pattern for many of the people who hold sponsorship power. So what happens instead? We are offered mentorship. And we accept it gratefully, because it is something. Because someone is paying attention. Because we have been told, often implicitly, that the path forward involves proving ourselves more thoroughly, preparing more carefully, and waiting a little longer.
The preparation never ends. The wait continues. And the person who was less prepared but more sponsored moves forward anyway.
I have lived a version of this. I have watched others experience it in sharper form than I did. And I have sat in enough rooms now to know that the women most often told they are “not quite ready” are frequently more ready than the people being fast-tracked around them.
They are just not sponsored.
“Being told you are ready is not the same as being moved forward. Somebody has to do the moving.”
What happens when advice replaces action
When mentorship substitutes for sponsorship, several things happen over time.
Women become extraordinarily well-prepared and chronically overlooked. They complete every course, seek every piece of feedback, and work on every development area identified in every review. And still, opportunities go elsewhere—because preparation is not what unlocks them. Access is.
Confidence erodes quietly. Being told you are good, over and over, without the external validation of being moved forward, starts to feel like something other than encouragement. It starts to feel like management—a comfortable way of keeping someone engaged without giving them what they are actually ready for.
And talented women leave. Not loudly. Quietly. They stop raising their hands, stop putting themselves forward, stop believing that the next conversation will be any different from the last one. The organization loses them without ever understanding why, and the exit interview rarely captures the truth.
How we redefine this, right now
01 — For Women
Know the difference, and ask for what you actually need
If you have mentors but no sponsors, name that clearly in your next conversation with a senior person who has access. Do not ask for another coffee chat. Ask specifically: “Is there an opportunity coming up where you could put my name forward?” That is a different request, and it requires a different kind of courage to make. Make it anyway.
02 — For Mentors
Turn your mentoring into sponsoring, even occasionally
If you mentor someone and you believe they are ready, ask yourself honestly: have I said their name in a room where it counts? Have I recommended them for an opportunity, a panel, a project, or a promotion? If the answer is no, that is the next conversation to have. Mentoring without advocacy is incomplete. It is also, frankly, the easier part.
03 — For Leaders
Look at who you are actually sponsoring, not just mentoring
Most senior leaders can name their mentees. Fewer can give an honest account of who they have actively sponsored in the last twelve months—and whether that group reflects the diversity they claim to value. Pull that thread. The answer is instructive. And then do something about what it tells you.
04 — For Organizations
Build sponsorship into how you develop talent, not just mentorship
Formal mentoring programs are common. Formal sponsorship programs are rare. The difference in outcome is significant. Organizations that want to close representation gaps at senior levels need to build structures where sponsorship is an expected part of leadership—not something that happens informally for some people and not for others.
05 — For Everyone
Say the name. In the room. Before you are asked.
Sponsorship does not always require a formal role or program. It can happen in any meeting where an opportunity is being discussed and a name needs to be said. Think of the woman in your network who is ready, who has been ready, who keeps being told to wait. Say her name. Back it with specifics. That act, small as it sounds, is what changes trajectories.
A word from someone who has been on both sides of this
I wrote The Mentor’s Journey because I wanted to honour what mentorship had meant in my own life. And I stand by every word of it. But writing that book also gave me the language to see something I had not articulated clearly before: the mentors who changed my life most were the ones who eventually became my sponsors too. The ones who did not just guide me privately but advocated for me publicly.
Who said my name when I was not in the room.
Who made a phone call I did not know about that opened a door I had not known existed.
Not everyone has had that experience. Too many women—particularly Black women, women of color, disabled women, and women from working-class backgrounds—have access to plenty of advice and almost no advocacy. That is the gap we need to close. Not by abandoning mentorship, but by refusing to let it substitute for the thing that actually moves the needle.
The conversation is changing—slowly—but it is changing. And the more of us who name this clearly, who ask for what we actually need, who use our own access to advocate for others, the faster it moves.
You deserve more than good advice. You deserve someone in the room fighting for your seat at the table. If you do not have that yet, let this be the piece that helps you ask for it.
Bamidele Farinre, CSci, FIBMS, HonFellow AHCS
Chartered Biomedical Scientist | Educator | Author | Global STEM Advocate
Bamidele Farinre is the author of The Mentor’s Journey: From Learning to Leading and a contributor to the APPG on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM’s AI equity inquiry. She writes and speaks on mentorship, leadership, sponsorship, and what it takes to build systems that work for everyone. The No Ceiling Philosophy runs through everything she does: no limit on what you can learn, build, or become.
Influential Women | influentialwomen.com
© No Ceiling 2026 | Bamidele Farinre
