Career Mentor or Advocate?
Art by Alfonso de Anda
Reflecting its updated mission and vision, the financial services employment equity advocacy group WIPN has published the white paper “The Story of Us: 2021 Evolution of Women in the Retirement Industry.”
The publication, produced in collaboration with T. Rowe Price and OneDigital Retirement + Wealth, comes after WIPN’s rebranding from the Women in Pensions Network to “WE Inspire. Promote. Network.” The new research dissects the experiences—positive and negative—of women in the financial services space and provides a blueprint for those with power in this industry to address the gender and racial employment gaps that persist.
Jennifer Norr, WIPN’s president and a marketing and strategy executive for CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions, says one eye-opening finding is that just shy of half the women in the survey reported being their family’s primary wage earner—yet, a strong majority of the total group reported being more responsible than their spouse for family-related household tasks and caregiving.
The survey report says the experience of the coronavirus pandemic has proven that providing remote working options and more schedule flexibility can support caregiving women and help them to excel in their careers, while also allowing them to have more personal time.
“We’ve seen a move toward understanding that doing a good job and being committed is about the output, rather than the amount of time spent sitting in an office,” Norr says. “Stepping back, for women, satisfaction with career performance comes mostly from having a promising career path, more so than reaching the highest possible position. Unfortunately, only half agreed that their career path looks promising, representing one of the largest gaps in this research between defining and achieving success.”
Norr emphasized the importance of the communication aspect of career paths. Simply put, people will not assume they have the opportunity to advance, especially over the mid- and long-term, unless they are told so and given clear guideposts along the journey from employment to promotion to leadership.
This is true for everyone, including white men, but it is an especially pernicious problem when considering the outlook of women and people of color. When there is nobody who looks like them at the highest levels of leadership, it is natural for people to question what their own future at any employer looks like, WIPN says.
In terms of actionable takeaways from the research, Norr says, there are plenty, but perhaps the most important is the central role of—and the differences between—what WIPN refers to as “mentorship” and “sponsorship.”
“Mentors are like your guru,” Norr says. “They are critical sources of information and inspiration, but they may not be in a position to provide you with direct support in your workplace. A true ‘sponsor’ or ‘advocate’ is someone you can identify and work with on the job, who can and will use their own influence to help someone else succeed in the financial services industry.
“Both an advocate and a sponsor help to connect you to opportunities,” she continues. “At WIPN, we ask our sponsors or mentors to do three important things: listen; validate or suggest alternate behaviors; and share their resources and network. The role of an advocate is a bit simpler but still very critical: to be a champion for you when you aren’t in the room by suggesting you for a specific client or job.”
50% of respondents are their family’s primary wage earner—yet a strong majority of the total group reported being more responsible than their spouse for family-related household tasks and caregiving.
According to the survey data, women find both mentorships and sponsorships valuable, but agree that a sponsor is more likely to help with advancement than is a mentor: 64% said a sponsor would be more apt to help them vs. 47% who said a mentor would. The value of having a mentor or sponsor is recognized by many—not having one is cited among the top five barriers to success—but only 17% of respondents feel they have a sponsor, though 42% of women reported having a mentor.
“The lack of mentors and sponsors is a particular concern among women of color,” Norr notes. “Almost a quarter cite the lack of a mentor/sponsor as a barrier to career growth. Women of color who do not have a mentor say this is often due to an inability to find one who’s a fit. Additionally, the data show that a significantly higher proportion of women of color feel excluded from formal and informal networks at work as compared with white women.”
The analysis goes on to show that women of color not only express higher levels of dissatisfaction with their careers, but they also bear the dual burdens of having to “represent” their race and ethnicity and not being able to bring their full selves to work.
“Together, these factors can serve to inhibit career growth and a sense of belonging,” Norr says. “These sentiments are not just homespun but, rather, stem from the cultures of many workplaces where employers’ actions often do not align with their stated values, even when formal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts exist.”