Advancing a plural,reflexive,and inclusive psychology through feminist mentoring

For decades, mentorship has been a significant site of feminist engagement central to the advancement of equity for women and other marginalized people in the academy (Benishek et al., 2004; Colley, 2002; Humble et al., 2006; McGuire & Reger, 2003; McIntyre & Lykes, 1998; Woodhull et al., 1985). This feminist ambition aligns with the growing initiatives within psychology to take responsibility for harms the discipline has caused to marginalized populations. For example, the recent “Report of the American Psychological Association's Board of Scientific Affairs Task Force on Promotion, Tenure, and Retention of Faculty of Color in Psychology” (Azmitia et al., 2025) identified inadequate mentorship as a direct contributor to the continued underrepresentation of people of color among psychology faculty in the United States (US), and called for the development of systematic programs and practices to address this barrier (Azmitia et al., 2025). As research and discussion on how to curate inclusive and empowering environments in psychology advance (Pauly et al., 2023; Zorwick et al., 2024), a central aim of the present special issue is to contribute to the broader reflection on the transformative role that mentorship can play in psychology, particularly, how feminist mentorship principles and practices can challenge and dismantle power structures inherent in the academy, and thereby move towards social justice.

Mentorship is traditionally defined as a relationship in which a more experienced individual, usually an older, more established professional, serves as a guide, role model, teacher, and sponsor to a less experienced individual, typically a younger, more junior professional (Eby & Robertson, 2020; Kram, 1983). In this dynamic, the mentor provides the mentee with knowledge, advice, a network, and support to help them become a fully integrated and productive member of their chosen profession (McGuire & Reger, 2003). Although a graduate supervisor is assumed to be a mentor, an academic mentor can be anyone who guides and provides academic and career support.

Traditional often leverages the intellectual and professional experiences of a senior mentor. This type of has been criticized for being implicitly geared toward reproducing the mentor's values, career trajectory, and style, leaving little room for the mentee's influence, especially if the mentee's lived experiences differ substantially from those of the mentor. As such, this approach can reinforce the mentor's intellectual tradition, which may limit the agency of mentees. For instance, instead of acknowledging the diverse realities of mentees, mentorship that overlooks these realities can increase mentees’ dependence on the mentor, thereby reinforcing power imbalances and existing hierarchies (Fassinger & Hensler-McGinnis, 2005; McGuire & Reger, 2003). Indeed, traditional approaches to have been criticized for their individualistic and meritocratic focus perpetuating the notion that they who succeeds does so through hard work and her own merit. This sits in contrast to feminist approaches, which encourage critical analysis of work environments and structural changes, thus offering collective benefits (Fassinger & Hensler-McGinnis, 2005; Harris, 2022).

Various feminist mentoring models have been proposed as interventions intended to disrupt traditional models. For example, sociologists McGuire and Reger (2003) proposed a feminist co-mentoring model as a collaborative process aimed at alleviating power differentials and offering space for the holistic development of both mentor and mentee that go beyond professional cloning. Similarly, the multicultural feminist model (MFM) emphasizes the importance of rethinking power dynamics and developing strong collaborative skills within and outside the mentor–mentee relationship, articulating mentoring as relational/communal relationships that should be multiple and diverse (Benishek et al., 2004; Fassinger & Hensler-McGinnis, 2005). Fahs and Swank (2020) revealed the many benefits of a multidisciplinary, undergraduate feminist research group, which provided an informal space to foster the development of collaborative and politically engaged research (Fahs & Swank, 2020). The benefits for students included socializing them into the academic world through supporting presentation of their research at conferences, publication of their work, and their application for graduate studies; developing feminist friendships that build a caring community; encouraging feminist activism alongside feminist academic work; and across social identities, which deepens understanding of interpersonal differences while building alliances across them. The authors argue that such groups serve social justice goals, particularly benefiting marginalized students as well as mentors through the collaborative research made possible within the group.

Inman (2020) provided a personal example of such collaborative mentoring. Reflecting on her trajectory within the academy as a woman of color who started as an international student in the US and who ultimately became a full professor, she emphasized the multiplicity of mentoring as varied relationships with various people. Critical, she argued, is that the mentoring relationship be an engaged one, entailing a sharing of “power and privilege” (Inman, 2020). Although feminist mentoring is described and practiced in a variety of ways, it can be characterized by a lateral, collaborative, advocacy-oriented, holistic, and individualized approach to training and supervising (Kim et al., 2024).

In feminist psychology circles, feminist mentorship has been recognized as a scholarly site of accomplishment and recognition. For instance, since 2003, the Canadian Psychological Association Section on Women and Psychology has recognized excellence in feminist mentoring. The feminist mentoring Award, developed and adjudicated by student members, is bestowed on mentors who demonstrate qualities such as mutual respect, collaboration, valuing of diverse perspectives, recognition of how the personal and professional are intertwined, and the promotion of feminist scholarship in teaching, supervision, and practice (https://cpa.ca/sections/swap/awardapplications/#mentoring). Similarly, since 2021, the Psychology of Women and Equalities Section (POWES) of the British Psychological Society has offered the Professor Marcia worrell mentoring award, which recognizes mentors’ excellence in “sustained engagement with offering feminist support, direction, guidance and supervision” to students and colleagues; “supporting ‘non-traditional’ students” in navigating and successfully completing their programs of study; “foster[ing] a welcoming atmosphere and culture of inclusion”; and “inspir[ing] students in their studies and/or professional development” (https://www.bps.org.uk/member-networks/psychology-women-and-equalities-section). These two awards demonstrate the increasing recognition that feminist mentoring models bring added value to the field of psychology.

This special issue is the culmination of a panel discussion on the topic of feminist mentoring that took place during the 2022 Canadian Psychological Association convention. The panel, composed of past winners of the Section on Women and Psychology’s Feminist Mentoring Award, drew upon their diverse experience and knowledge to outline the various ways they practice feminist mentoring of students in the Canadian academic context. Panelists varied in psychology specialty (e.g., counselling, social, cognitive, and biopsychology), seniority, and academic location (e.g., from small undergraduate to large research-intensive universities). A key outcome was the general recognition of the need to critically examine the landscape of feminist mentoring in psychology across varied academic and social realities.

Motivation for this special issue also came from our collective interest in, and commitment to, the practice of feminist mentoring within psychology. While we all have experience engaging in feminist mentoring (as mentors and mentees), we recognized the dearth of literature concerning feminist mentoring in psychology specifically. We also agreed that feminist mentoring has the potential to provide a rich foundation from which to articulate principles and practices for inclusive mentoring within the academy; in our call for papers, we asked contributors to consider how feminist mentoring can promote equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging along multiple intersecting social locations. The fulsome response to our call suggests that many others have also been theorizing and practicing feminist mentoring in this way; so many others, in fact, that the number of submissions we received required accommodation across two issues of the journal.

This issue aims to address the critical gap in scholarship on feminist mentoring in psychology by advancing our reflection regarding how feminist mentoring is currently being practiced. The articles, which appear across two issues of the journal, highlight the importance and growing interest that the question of mentoring has for feminist scholars in psychology. This first issue comprises seven contributions including critical reviews and descriptions of programs (Larsen et al., 2026; Oliveira-Silva et al., 2025; Veiga et al., 2026) as well as critical analyses of first-person perspectives of feminist mentors and mentees (Balint et al., 2026; Carr & Miller, 2025; Closson et al., 2025 ; Gildersleeve et al., 2025). In this editorial, we introduce the topic by providing a brief description of the theoretical landscape that grounds feminist mentoring across the contributions, and how these theories are translated into principles, practices, and experiences of feminist mentoring. We conclude by reflecting on what the contributions have brought forward in terms of our own feminist mentoring.

Feminist Mentoring: Political, Relational, and Situated

Traditional mentoring models are rooted in Western, neoliberal paradigms that emphasize individualism and competition (discussed in Harris, 2022), ignoring the lived realities of racialized, Indigenous, and Global South mentors and mentees. Recognizing that institutions like those of higher education are shaped by structural inequities and histories of dispossession, alternative models are needed so that inequities not be reinforced. Feminist mentoring models resist hierarchical relationships; foster inclusion, diversity, and representation; and consider that lived experience is always shaped in the context of colonial and other histories (Harris, 2022; Kim et al., 2024).

To this end, intersectionality theory (e.g., Collins, 2022; Crenshaw, 1991) and decolonial theory (e.g., Boonzaier & van Niekerk, 2019; Macleod et al., 2020) are two theoretical frameworks that have grounded the development and critical evaluation of feminist mentoring. They help identify sites and processes producing and reinforcing marginalization, and propose mentoring practices that disrupt individual exclusion in various environments. Intersectionality is a core lens, as mentoring without attention to race, class, sexuality, and colonial histories risks reproducing exclusions and privileging overrepresented experiences. A decolonial praxis that values Indigenous and Global South knowledge, dismantles epistemic violence, and reimagines the mentor–mentee relationship in a transnational and liberatory context is essential (Freire et al., 1997). Through such a lens, feminist mentoring can be conceptualized as both a relational practice and a political act, supporting not only mentees but also the broader communities they serve. This dual role demands that mentees be supported in navigating complex geopolitical realities while those realities are explicitly challenged. Feminist mentoring, therefore, must be articulated within a transnational perspective (e.g., Mullings & Mukherjee, 2018).

Two contributions within this issue exemplify the importance of attending to the individual through collective development/solidarity and advocacy that extend beyond the walls of postsecondary institutions. Oliveira-Silva et al. (2025), in their evaluation of three mentoring programs developed to advance the status and reduce underrepresentation of women in STEAM+ fields (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics, and related fields) in Brazil, highlight the importance of considering the legacy of colonization, racial diversity, collectivist values, and significant economic barriers to women's career opportunities when planning the development of mentoring programs. Practices like matching mentors with mentees who share intersectional identities and preprogram mentor training centered on culturally, racially/ethnically, and gender-sensitive mentoring proved to be important to the success of the programs. They identified five principles to be followed in developing a feminist approach to mentoring: solidarity among women, collective moments of advocacy that extend beyond the mentor–mentee dyad, sharing of experiences among mentees, addressing local intersectional barriers, and utilizing a decolonial lens to adapt mentoring to the local context. Similarly, Veiga et al. (2025), in their scoping review critically assessing 27 mentoring programs for women entrepreneurs, observed that most mentoring programs followed a traditional skill-based structure with minimal consideration of varying lived experiences and intersectional realities. Alternatively, the review highlighted exemplary mentoring programs, such as Ecosistema Mujer from Chile, illustrating the importance of community-based and peer-oriented approaches in providing empowered entrepreneurial mentorship. Together, both contributions demonstrate the benefit of feminist mentoring as a practice that fosters collective transformation, challenges institutional cultures, and contributes to systemic change.

The collective and communal dimension of feminist mentoring is key, as this provides a way of entering into relationships and creating allyship and collective resilience with peers. Two contributions demonstrate the many benefits of collective mentoring. Based on McGuire and Reger's co-mentoring model, Gildersleeve et al. (2025) describe their experience within a feminist mentoring collective, which they refer to as a “village.” This village consists of feminists and interdisciplinary scholars who embody intersectional identities, including a range of genders, sexualities, social classes, and migration histories. The authors argue that feminist co-mentoring relations “fuelled by empathy and solidarity” (2025) are integral to allowing women to meet their caring roles and other gendered life circumstances without these negatively impacting their academic careers. Acknowledging gendered life challenges and emotional work, rather than invisibilizing them, they treat these as resources to draw upon in academic work. Working collaboratively, they expect and allow for the waxing and waning of members’ contributions that accompany life challenges, including for example, pregnancy, parenting, and grief, trusting that their efforts will eventually balance out. This approach appears successful as their scholarly output meets or exceeds their targets. They have found that co-mentoring nurtures relationships both inside and beyond academia, and that working with partners in industry and/or people with lived/living experience has contributed to their village producing relevant and impactful research. Further, the members’ diverse interests and academic backgrounds have facilitated theoretical and methodological innovations. They argue that operating within a feminist co-mentoring model fosters power sharing among comentors, but also, and importantly, fosters power sharing within the larger environment of the academy.

Leveraging feminist allyship and co-mentoring has also been found to be particularly important when navigating interdisciplinary, hierarchical, and disempowering clinical spaces. Building on an academic peer-to-peer model, Carr and Miller propose a feminist peer mentoring model grounded in their experience as psychologists in an academic medical setting within the public sector in the US (Carr & Miller, 2025). Reflecting on their decade-long peer feminist mentoring relationship, Carr and Miller describe how practices such as reciprocal support, sharing professional and personal lived experiences, and making space for professional growth and well-being have been instrumental in their ability to enact their feminist goals around patient care, peers, and trainees. Focusing on mutual support and inclusion rather than the traditional competitiveness and rewarding of individual effort, these co-mentoring models challenge hierarchical and patriarchal models of mentorship commonly found in academia, potentially weakening institutional norms. Thus, Carr and Miller’s articulation of feminist peer mentoring, like Gildersleeve et al.’s co model, empowers scholars by building feminist solidarity and activism.

Feminist mentoring offers paths to both exist and resist within challenging academic environments. Two contributions within this issue provide accounts of the mutuality that takes place in feminist mentoring. Grounded in a conceptualization of feminist mentoring that “challenges conventional power dynamics and fosters inclusive environments,” Balint et al. (2026) draw from their diverse and ongoing mentoring experiences as graduate students conducting feminist psychology research in Canada. They argue that a distinguishing feature of feminist mentorship in research is openness to alternative research practices and encouraging students to use methods that fit with their research goals. Feminist mentorship produces new generations of students with perspectives that align with feminism without experiencing disciplinary confinement imposed by their mentor. Lateral exchange and dialogue between mentor and mentees is emulated in the commentary by Closson et al. (2025), where the voices of the faculty advisor and three undergraduate thesis students in psychology describe how they learn and grow together, espousing the benefits of bidirectional mentoring (Closson et al., 2025). Each describes their experience of feminist mentoring within a Canadian institution, and their first-person accounts demonstrate how feminist mentoring can center the personal development of both mentor and mentees, considering different identities, needs, and career pathways. As they built an environment based on mutual respect and support, they learned about power—how to share it, question it, and take it up. For example, a student author describes her increased confidence and ability to “take up space in traditionally male fields” (2025, p. 10), which has been an enduring goal of feminist scholars. Attentive to power imbalances, feminist mentoring has empowered them and deepened their commitment to feminist research and activism. Ultimately, feminist mentors in psychology challenge power dynamics while supporting mentees in navigating competitive and neoliberal academic environments.

An essential aim of feminist psychology is to create a discipline that promote social justice by challenging sexist assumptions and advocating for equity in both theory and practice. These priorities then inform the practices of feminist psychology as a discipline, including feminist mentoring (McIntyre & Lykes, 1998). A primary goal of feminist psychology has been, and continues to be, addressing the historical exclusion of women and other marginalized people as both researchers and research participants. It does so by validating and investigating gendered/sexed experiences that have previously been considered unworthy of study, such as menstruation, motherhood, and sexual assault, and by attending to exclusionary epistemic practices through the integration of a broader range of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches (e.g., Lafrance & Wigginton, 2019; Morawski, 1994). Feminist research methodology rejects assumptions of objectivity that are intrinsic to traditional scientific inquiry and acknowledges the influence of researchers’ subjectivities. Practicing reflexivity, feminist researchers consider knowledge within the experiences of the knower, making knowledge production contingent on being informed by and through exchange and collaboration with people with multiple lived experiences and positions, particularly those historically erased or distorted (Collins, 1986; Harding, 1987; Hartsock, 1987).

The importance of feminist mentoring in overcoming systemic and epistemic exclusion is highlighted in Larsen et al.'s commentary, which describes an internship program that is embedded within a community-based participatory action project aimed at addressing women's sexual violence victimization within Indigenous communities (Larsen et al., 2026). The internship program aims to train Indigenous scholars committed to ending sexual violence and is centered on feminist values such as representation, collaboration, relationships, power-sharing, empowerment, and research for social change. Larsen et al. (2026) describe both the successes and challenges of their internship program. For example, they highlight how the historical exclusion of Indigenous peoples contributes to the scarcity of Indigenous scholars in academia—a reality that needs to ground mentors’ positionality and self-reflection. For example, they note the difficulty of being settlers working in Indigenous communities and reflect on their responsibility to let the community's vision, rather than their own, lead the project. This commitment is integral to their mentorship model and provides an example of how feminist mentoring can offer a new way of collaborating within a community. Community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) is an increasingly popular approach in some areas of psychology, and Larsen et al. (2026) describe the clear overlap between CBPAR and feminist values. Their contribution provides an example of how feminist mentoring might be used to deliberately increase capacity in CBPAR and further social change through research.

Conclusion

Across all the contributions described in this issue, we observe that crucial to successful feminist mentoring are practices that directly align with feminist goals, particularly regarding the need to see mentoring as a communal enterprise that forms communities and supports collectives rather than focusing on individual performance. Similarly, breaking down hierarchies and altering power relations unify all the different articulations and experiences of feminist mentoring that have been discussed. This is a complex matter as it has many facets. It involves reshaping the mentor–mentee relationship to foster a mutual learning and idea-sharing environment. It also means acknowledging the personal as important in study and work, which means there is an openness to recognizing that personal issues may require attention—this is the “care work” that seems integral to feminist mentoring. This promotes collective well-being as well as genuine compassion, a necessary skill for building trust in relationships. Mentees must learn to navigate the power relations within study or work contexts. Through critical analysis of the systems of power that are in place, mentors and mentees also work toward changing those systems.

Altogether, feminist has been described as a practice that has the potential to reshape individual lives, relationships, and institutional cultures. At the individual level, it builds confidence, resilience, and leadership among those historically excluded (Veiga et al., 2025). At the relational level, it replaces hierarchy with reciprocity, creating spaces of mutual growth and solidarity. At the structural level, it disrupts patriarchal, colonial, and neoliberal logics, opening psychology to intersectional and decolonial approaches to creating knowledge. Feminist mentoring is a feminist intervention that nurtures growth while dismantling systems of exclusion, advancing psychology toward equity and justice.