Up the Chain: Gendered Mentoring in the U.S. Army

• Author: Shannon Portillo,Amy E. Smith,Alesha Doan
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X221076770
• Published date: 01 June 2023
• Date: 01 June 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X221076770

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2023, Vol. 43(2) 359 –380

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X221076770

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Article

Up the Chain: Gendered

Mentoring in the U.S. Army

Shannon Portillo1, Amy E. Smith2,

and Alesha Doan1

Abstract

For careers in public service, meritocracy is espoused and idealized with formal

structures for advancement. However, career development is also relational. Scholars

have long discussed the benefits of mentoring both for psychosocial support and

career advancement in organizations. While mentoring is recognized as important

for career advancement, less is known about the nature of mentoring in male-

dominated public sector organizations. In this paper we explore how mentoring

functions in the U.S. Army—a male-dominated public service organization. Using

data from a mixed method study, including survey data from approximately 1,200

Army personnel and analysis of 27 focus groups with 198 participants, we find that

mentoring quality matters for all employees, but it matters more for women. We

also find that mentoring is gendered, shaping the career trajectories of women and

men in different ways.

Keywords

mentoring, gendered organizations, social equity, career advancement, military

For organizations and employees, understanding how careers develop and advance has

wide ranging implications including: diversity in the composition of leadership, the

extent to which different voices are represented in decision-making, the retention of

employees, job satisfaction and commitment, and the overall performance of organiza-

tions. For careers in public sector organizations in particular, meritocracy is espoused

1University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA

2University of Massachusetts at Boston, USA

Corresponding Author:

Shannon Portillo, School of Public Affairs & Administration, University of Kansas, 1445 Jayhawk Blvd,

Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.

Email: sportillo@ku.edu

1076770ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X221076770Review of Public Personnel AdministrationPortillo et al.

research-article2022

360 Review of Public Personnel Administration 43(2)

as the key to career advancement (Weber, 1946). Civil service laws, the general sched-

ule classification, and the senior executive service are formal structures that rely on

meritocratic principles to guide career advancement. However, careers are shaped by

more than formal structures.

For more than four decades scholars have explored how mentoring shapes the

experiences of individuals in the workplace, noting that mentoring has both psychoso-

cial and career advancement benefits (Allen et al., 2004; Bozeman & Feeney, 2009;

Eby et al., 2008; Kram, 1985; Noe et al., 2002; Ragins & Cotton, 1999). However, we

still know relatively little about how mentoring may have gendered implications, par-

ticularly in gender dominated organizations and fields. In this article, we explore men-

toring in the U.S. Army. The Army is a male-dominated organization that prides itself

on principles of meritocracy and equality of opportunity. It is distinguished by its strict

rule-orientation, hierarchical structure, and defined path for advancement—it is one of

the largest public sector employers in the U.S. (U.S. Department of Defense, 2018).

Yet, this context has received little attention in public management research. Moreover,

the Army has recently placed an emphasis on increasing diversity throughout its ranks

and has identified mentoring as a strategy for achieving it (Kamarck, 2017; U.S. Army,

2017).

In this article, we use mixed methods to explore how individuals perceive the men-

toring they receive as well as how individuals discuss the effects of mentoring. We use

quantitative methods to analyze survey data from more than 1,200 Army personnel

and test hypotheses about the extent to which mentoring experiences are associated

with perceptions of career opportunities. We use qualitative methods to analyze data

from focus groups with 198 Army personnel, to reveal in-depth understandings of how

mentoring shapes career opportunities. We find that having a mentor and receiving

quality advice from your mentor has a significant impact on perceptions of career

opportunities. Further, while all employees benefit from quality mentoring, women

report a stronger benefit, meaning quality mentoring may be one effective tool to close

the gendered leadership gap. However, the ways that men and women describe men-

toring are fundamentally different. Women often discuss mentoring as a way to sur-

vive in an organization, whereas men often discuss mentoring as a way to advance

their career in an organization. This survival versus advancement approach has major

implications for how mentoring may be implemented as an equalizing and diversify-

ing strategy. While mentoring may be vital for retaining women in male-dominated

organizations, as currently implemented, it is limited in facilitating their career

progression.

Our study contributes to existing research in several ways. First, we study the U.S.

Army—one of the largest, yet little studied, public sector organizations. Second, we

integrate results from our quantitative and qualitative data analysis to explore whether

or not mentoring influences perceptions of career opportunities, but also how mentor-

ship shapes these opportunities. In doing so, we add new dimensions to theories of

mentoring—revealing the gendered nature of the survival versus advancement func-

tions in mentoring relations. Finally, we directly tie our findings to conversations

around equity within organizations. In the remaining sections of this article, we review