The UK is wasting talent by failing working women. Mentorship can help.

Mentorship has been one of the most powerful forces in my career. In an industry where I was often one of the only women in the room, the moments that changed my trajectory were not formal reviews or processes, they were conversations. Someone sharing what they had learned the hard way, or someone opening a door I did not know existed. That experience is not unique, but it is exactly what too many women still lack.

The scale of the problem
The data shows how much ground remains to cover. Women in the UK earn around 13% less than men on average, according to the Office for National Statistics. That gap widens dramatically after children. Five years after a first child, mothers’ monthly earnings drop by 42% on average (around £1,051), driven by reduced hours, slower progression and fewer senior opportunities. The leadership pipeline reflects these structural barriers. Less than ten women lead FTSE 100 companies. While FTSE 350 board representation has improved – from 38% in 2021 to 43% in 2025 – executive roles lag far behind. Women remain underrepresented in senior operational roles that typically lead to CEO appointments. Even where women are better represented in executive positions, they are less likely to hold revenue-generating roles, the traditional route to the top. Russell Reynolds found women hold just 21% of profit-and-loss roles in the FTSE 100, including 28% of COO and 25% of CFO positions, but 79% of CHRO roles. The gap opens early and widens fast.

These disparities are not just unfair, they are inefficient. Companies with more gender diverse leadership teams consistently outperform peers on profitability and decision making. At a macro level, increasing women’s participation and leadership would significantly raise economic output. When talent is unevenly developed and promoted, productivity suffers.

Where mentorship makes the difference
Mentorship works because it directly addresses the points where women are most likely to fall behind. It accelerates access to knowledge that is rarely written down. Many career defining skills are learned informally – negotiating compensation or how to understand organisational politics, for example. Without guidance, these lessons take years to accumulate and often come after missed opportunities. It expands access to networks that shape progression. Senior roles are filled through trust and visibility as much as formal performance. Mentors help women build relationships beyond their immediate teams and gain exposure to decision makers who influence advancement. It strengthens confidence with evidence. Women are, sadly, often more likely to underestimate their readiness for leadership roles. Regular feedback from someone experienced helps change that perception and encourages earlier and more frequent moves.

The most effective mentors advocate. They recommend their mentees for new assignments, introduce them to senior stakeholders and support them in promotion discussions. Crucially, mentorship also helps women position themselves closer to where decisions are made. That proximity to strategy and leadership is often what accelerates careers. I used to believe I was too busy for mentoring and networking. Then I spent time in a room full of women describing challenges I recognised immediately. The same patterns appeared again and again. That made it clear how much faster progress could be if those lessons were shared earlier and more widely.

What companies should do
For businesses, the next step is practical:
● Formalise mentorship so it reaches beyond existing networks. Pair high potential women with senior leaders and set clear expectations on engagement and outcomes.
● Train mentors to give specific, actionable guidance and to recognise bias in evaluation and promotion decisions.
● Measure impact. Track promotion rates, retention and pay progression for those in mentorship programmes and hold leadership accountable for improvement.
● Ensure that flexible working and career breaks do not remove women from mentorship pipelines or advancement opportunities.
● Embed mentorship alongside sponsorship. Insight matters, but advocacy changes outcomes. Organisations need both.
● Sustain the effort. One off programmes will not shift entrenched gaps. Mentorship needs to be embedded into how organisations develop and promote talent.

A more strategic future
At a time when careers are becoming less linear and more uncertain, the advantage will go to those who are closest to how decisions are actually made. That is not something you learn from a job description. It is learned through people – through conversations, exposure, and guidance that rarely sits in a formal process. That matters even more as technology reshapes the workplace. Tools like AI will change how work is done, but not the need for judgment. If anything, they raise the premium on it. The people who progress will be those who can challenge and decide. Mentorship is one of the fastest ways to build that capability.

But perhaps the most important shift is this: moving from individual success to collective progress. Too often, women are left to learn the same lessons others know slowly and privately. Mentorship makes experience visible and turns isolated effort into shared momentum. That is how change actually happens. Backing women through mentorship is one of the most direct and effective ways to build stronger companies and a more productive economy. Because when one woman moves forward faster, she rarely does so alone.