Abstract
Women have a limited advancement in the construction industry due to lack of structured
mentorship programme. Mentorship has been used as a tool to advance women in their
careers. Previous research has shown that the successful mentorship of women was
insufficient. In South Africa the construction industry is currently economically active and
has a shortage of qualified and skilled professionals. This paper assesses problems to
female graduates’ mentoring in the South African construction industry, recommends
measures to promote their mentoring, retention and participation in infrastructure
development and examine perceived career barriers of women in entry level and mid-level
positions who were formally and informally mentored. The study was mainly a literature
review, qualitative with a special focus on women mentoring problems of employees within
organizations. The results indicated only one significant finding, informally mentored
protégés rated lack of mentoring as more of a barrier to advancement than who reported
being formally mentored. The study contributes to social change by providing empirical
support for the importance of formal mentoring in empowering women for future career
advancement and a guide for policy changes for government and strategies for industry,
education and society to solve the problems women graduates experience in South Africa.