Abstract
- Mentoring is critically important to the success of young professionals in the accounting field. Because higher-level executives in the accounting profession are most often men, improving opportunities for young female professionals is especially worthwhile. However, in the current #MeToo environment, there is reason to be concerned that male superiors may be reluctant to mentor young females. Using an experimental study with 95 accounting professionals as participants, we do not find a greater reluctance to mentor when the gender of the participant and the gender of the prospective mentee do not match, as compared to when the genders do match, even when the participant gender was male and the prospective mentee gender was female. However, we do find a greater reluctance to meet at “more risky” times and/or locations when the genders do not match; the lowest willingness was associated with male participants who were assigned a female prospective mentee. Our findings have implications for practice, as accounting firms maybe consider formal mentoring assignments and structured times and locations for mentoring meetings.