Mentoring Women in Corrections: Encouraging the Next Corrections Executive

Kimberly Collica-Cox ()
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Kimberly Collica-Cox: Criminal Justice Department, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY 10570, USA

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Mentoring can positively influence the mentee, the mentor, and the organization in which both are employed. Mentoring can help employees to overcome workplace challenges, including barriers to advancement, while increasing job satisfaction, enhancing career development, and producing a greater sense of value within the organization, often leading to increased productivity. While mentoring clearly has a multitude of benefits, women have traditionally had difficulty establishing mentorships in the workplace, which appear especially problematic in traditionally male-dominated careers, such as corrections. Based on surveys and interviews with members of the Association of Women Executives in Corrections (AWEC), this study investigates the role of mentorship in women’s advancement within corrections departments. Data show that support, particularly from one’s supervisor, is critical as women consider advancement, regardless of the supervisor’s gender. These results imply that when there are few women in the administrative ranks, limiting the opportunity for female mentorship, women can find equally effective mentorship from male superiors. Moreover, mentorships do not necessarily have to be formalized to be effective and can develop from outside one’s department when none exist within. Corrections agencies interested in diversifying their administrative ranks should plan to establish more opportunities to foster mentoring relationships, which would benefit all employees.

Keywords: women executives; corrections; wardens; prison; jail; mentors; mentorships; mentoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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