The importance of trust in mentoring relationships for women’s outdoor leadership development

Mentoring is an important tool that organisations can implement to helpaddress gender barriers in women’s progression in sport and the outdoors.However, there is much still to learn about what makes for effectivementoring in these contexts. This paper explores what makes for positiveand ‘successful’ mentoring relationships within a formal mentoringprogramme for women’s outdoor leadership development. A qualitative,interpretive approach was adopted. Twenty participants who took part in aten-week women’s outdoor leadership course and experienced mentoringby either a male or female mentor were interviewed using semi-structuredinterviews lasting 30–60 min. Transcripts were analysed through theframework of trust and trustworthiness (Hardin, R. ([2002). Trust andtrustworthiness. Russell Sage Foundation.]), paying attention to thesignificance of gender for cross-gender mentoring relationships. Findingsshow the importance of the key elements of openness and honesty,benevolence, reliability and competence for experiences of positivementoring relationships and we highlight the issues raised whenmentoring expectations are not met. The data reveal the value of bothmale and female mentors but also highlight the ambiguities anduncertainties for women in cross-gender mentoring. In particular, we showthe importance of the mentoring relationship as a psychologically safespace where women’s experiences in the male-dominated context of theoutdoors can be understood, recognised and validated. Recommendationsfor mentoring programmes are provided.