IGF 2023 WS #538 Navigating Online Gender-Based Violence: The Mentoring Gap

Description:

The mentorship process can be defined as “a professional relationship” where an individual with experience guides someone else in development of specific skills and knowledge, which hopefully enhances the mentee’s growth transformation (Kopera-Frye, 2020). Mentoring can happen in more formal settings, or through self-selection, where mentees identify potential mentors on the basis of similarity in interest and need. Generally, benefits of mentorship include knowledge transfer, learning and leadership opportunities, as well as “expanded thinking and facilitation of a collaborative culture”.

Meaningful mentor-mentee relationships bridge gaps and help facilitate in-organisation coherence as individuals work to progress more inclusively. Research has shown that presence of strong mentors helps female athletes interact with issues of sexism and problematic behaviours (Vaggalis & Kelley, 2018).

Taking into consideration the ever-changing nature of technology and its use, there is a substantial lack of presence of mentors confident in offering mentorship on how to contribute to the fight against online gender-based violence. It can be broadly distinguished between two situational needs for mentoring; one where the mentor is for a victim of online gender-based violence; the other is for mentoring individuals who aim to work to end online gender-based violence.

Harraf (2021) stated that “gender inequality is also a main consequence resulted by the absence of mentorship”. Lack of mentoring may lead to reinforcement of unconscious gender biases online, and this would be a major hindrance while tackling online gender-based violence.

There needs to be greater mobilisation of “bystanders” when it comes to tackling such culturally-ingrained problems, and discussion about guidance and continued knowledge sharing is vital.