14.03.25
In light of International Women’s Day earlier this month, we got in touch with Women in PR Mentor Emily Luscombe to shine a light on the benefits career mentorship can bring to the PR industry and the women that work in it.
Read the full interview below:
This is my second year as a mentor through Women in PR. I’ve benefited personally and professionally from many initiatives focused on driving diversity and female empowerment throughout my career. Participating in this gives me a tangible opportunity to pay it forward while continuing to expand my network and insight through working with brilliant women like Sam.
I am a working mum, and when I returned to a corporate consulting environment after having my son in 2015 I was congratulated for being the first Partner to return from maternity leave! I was subsequently lauded for being the first to be promoted to an MD position while pregnant with my second. These did not feel like career highs, they terrified me…what was I thinking? What was wrong with me?! That was an era when I would encounter criticism and backhanded compliment in equal measure for “acting like a man”. This is one of my greatest hates – that a successful, career-oriented woman who pushes herself forward can only be acting in this way in a vain attempt to be male?!
I’ve met incredible women during the last 20 years who have smashed the glass ceiling and inspired me onwards – but there is still so far to go. I feel our job will have been done when we are no longer having these conversations; if mentoring programmes had been more accessible when I set out much of the self-doubt I experienced in my 20s and early 30s could have been abated. This is why I want to play my part.
This mentoring programme is particularly good because it gives the mentor and mentee flexibility to define their own system for getting the most out of it. That said, we do have a framework and ‘rules of engagement’ set by WIPR, which provides focus and a supportive infrastructure. Our objective is to identify core areas that will help the mentee progress professionally, collaborate with new ideas and opportunities, share personal networks, and enhance their career through an external lens. What I’ve discovered is that this is equally a reverse mentoring exercise! Working with Sam has inspired me to think about my own career goals and motivators; we’ve been through similar health challenges and have young families, so finding a kindred spirit who understands your profession, shares your values, is in your corner but outside your day job – that’s been an incredible boost for me.
Career mentoring is for anyone, at any stage of their career, who can benefit from leveraging another person’s perspective and professional experiences. I think that the purpose of mentoring can be misunderstood – it’s not (only) for inexperienced executives, people who are dissatisfied with their career, or for ‘older women’ to mentor ‘younger women’. We have some fantastic men mentoring women through WIPR. It is about seeing this as a partnership to be entered into with an open mind, and if the chemistry works and you are invested in it, you can both take a great deal out.
WIPR and PR Week run a competitive process to apply to be both mentor and mentee each year. It is a fair and open selection process and once you have completed the application there are few specific requirements beyond a need to commit time and energy! A lot of work goes into identifying the right candidates and pairing them up based on experience, chemistry and context which is why the entry process is so rigorous. But this is just one industry initiative – there are many professional networks within and beyond the communications sector which can help you address personal and professional goals; my advice is to start by asking your own trusted network for introductions. And if you are ever offered an opportunity – however vague – to meet somebody new, take it up.
The PR industry has made massive strides on female and diverse representation, leadership and pay gaps – both agency-side and in-house. Many employers are now going further with improved health and care plans to support and enable women in the workplace – whether through maternity or menopause. International Women’s Day gives us a moment to reflect on progress and what more there is to do, but for me, the real opportunity is for us as professional communicators to leverage our superpowers to help other industries progress. There is so much hard data available now that quantifies the benefits of having a diverse leadership team and an organisation that reflects the communities it serves. This data needs to be better understood and acted on; that is where strategic communication comes in.
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Inspired by Emily’s experience and want to get involved with the next Women in PR mentorship program? Email info@womeninpr.org to get in touch.