Responding to group-based discrimination: The impact of social structure on willingness to engage in mentoring

In two studies we examined women's willingness to engage in mentoring as a function of the perceived pervasiveness of gender discrimination and the appraised legitimacy of discrimination. In line with predictions, and confirming predictions from social identity theory, we found that perceiving discrimination against women to be illegitimate enhanced willingness to engage in mentoring when discrimination was seen to be pervasive compared to rare. In contrast, when gender discrimination was appraised as more legitimate, pervasiveness of discrimination attributions did not influence willingness to engage in mentoring. Study 2 provided evidence that the interactive effect of pervasiveness and legitimacy is explained by the extent to which mentoring is conceived of as support for collective goals. The results bring to the fore the impact of perceptions of the social context on women's responses to career-development initiatives.