The Emergence and Effects of Sponsors for Women Leaders
基于对法国和西班牙女性领导者的半结构化访谈，研究了赞助人如何通过上级和非正式网络的支持促进女性职业发展，并发现女性领导者主要由男性赞助，这与现有文献提倡的同性赞助关系不同。
ABSTRACT Sponsoring activities are crucial for women leaders' career advancement. We explore who the sponsors of women are, the nature of their sponsoring activities, and how these activities have influenced women careers' advancement. Based on semi‐structured interviews with women leaders in France and Spain, we show the importance of combined assistive and appreciative support in sponsoring activities by superiors and by informal networks inside and outside the organization for women leaders in their early‐ and mid‐careers. We show that women in leadership positions are predominantly sponsored by men, which differs from existing literature that advocates for homophilous propensities and the establishment of same‐sex sponsoring relationships. We argue for a more structured approach to offering challenging assignments to women at every stage of their careers, and to move toward a constellation of sponsors both within and outside the organization, who can offer diverse sponsoring opportunities to women leaders at various career stages.