Overview

Women make up 70% of the health and care workforce but are underrepresented in leadership. This hinders Sustainable Development Goal 5, which seeks full female participation in leadership and decision-making. Creating supportive environments for women to ascend to leadership roles by fostering connections and providing guidance is a recognised strategy, reflecting components of mentoring. In 2024, the Austrian chapter of Women in Global Health, hosted by the European Health Forum Gastein, launched a pilot mentoring programme to address this gap. This article explores the role of mentoring in leadership development, sharing observations from the programme.