The goal of this workshop is to equip emergency medicine learners and teachers with a comprehensive, actionable framework for understanding, developing, and sustaining high quality mentorship and sponsorship relationships. Participants in this activity will explore the distinctions between mentorship, advisorship, and sponsorship, analyze gender-based disparities in access to each, and identify strategies to strengthen both individual practice and institutional culture.
This exercise emphasizes the reality that mentorship and sponsorship are not interchangeable. It recognizes that women in medicine, particularly women of color, frequently face inequitable access to both. Beyond conceptual understanding, participants will develop concrete tools to evaluate their current networks, cultivate sponsors, and construct “mentorship boards” that will serve to support long term growth and leadership.
Key Goals
Define and differentiate mentorship, advisorship, and sponsorship, with emphasis on how each contributes uniquely to career growth.
Explore how structural inequities, gender norms, and cultural biases shape mentorship and sponsorship access.
Develop practical skills to become an effective mentor and engage as a responsible sponsor.
Implement network building strategies, including constructing a “personal mentorship board.”
Identify institutional practices that foster cultures of structured, equitable mentorship and sponsorship.
This workshop encourages participants to shift from passive, organic mentorship models toward intentional, structured, and equitable systems that foster advancement for women in emergency medicine. Participants will evaluate research on gender disparities, analyze the gaps between mentorship and sponsorship, and explore evidence based strategies for improving both in their own careers.
Key Objectives:
Define Key Roles: Distinguish between mentorship, sponsorship, and advisorship. Analyze their unique contributions to your professional development.
Evaluate Disparities: Understand and reflect on the gendered and racial differences in access to high value mentorship and sponsorship.
Build Practical Skills: Develop strategies for effective mentoring, navigating difficult conversations, and identifying potential sponsors.
Cultivate Networks: Design and refine a personal “mentorship board” tailored to your career stage and goals.
Institutional Advocacy: Identify policies and cultural norms that promote high quality mentorship and sponsorship in your institution.
The following resources serve as the core materials for this module, ranging from scoping reviews to practical management guides:
Objective 1: Definitions, Roles, and Distinctions
Objective 2: Gender, Equity, and Disparities in Mentorship and Sponsorship
Objective 3: Becoming an Effective Mentor and Cultivating Sponsors Policies That Support Physician Parents
Objective 4: Institutional Strategies and Culture Building
Designed for personal journaling or pre-meeting preparation.
Mentorship Self Assessment Tool
Sponsorship Network Mapping Exercise
Mentorship Board Construction
Personal Action Plan
Designed for RAFT meetings, subdivided by module objectives.
General Discussion Questions:
What distinguishes mentorship from sponsorship in your experience?
How have mentorship and sponsorship shaped your career so far?
Where do you see gaps in mentorship culture within your department or institution?
How do structures in emergency medicine make it easier (or harder!) to cultivate sponsors?
Objective-Specific Discussion Questions
Objective 1: Define Key Roles
Objective 2: Evaluate Disparities
Objective 3: Build Practical Skills
Objective 4: Cultivate Networks
Objective 5: Institutional Advocacy