NEWS

Women receive advice. Men receive advocacy. If we want to close the gender gap, it’s time to be intentional about sponsorship.

Building a career in cardiology takes more than hard work; it requires access, visibility, and support.

One of the first pieces of career advice physicians receive is to find a mentor, and for good reason. Mentorship is a powerful asset, and a good mentor can provide early-career physicians with guidance, reassurance, and a safe space to ask questions. Mentors are instrumental in supporting early-career cardiologists as they navigate complex cases, difficult conversations, and major career transitions. Take a look at our Mentorship Toolkit here to learn more.

Mentorship is essential, but alone it is not sufficient. For meaningful career progression, physicians need more than guidance; they need advocacy. While a mentor can help you improve and advance your medical practice, a sponsor is critical to ensuring that these advancements and accomplishments are visible to those seeking skilled practitioners for leadership roles, speaking opportunities, and more.

Research across industries (for example, the 2025 McKinsey & Company Women in the Workplace report) shows that men are more likely to have sponsors, while women are more likely to have mentors. Women receive advice, while men receive advocacy. And though advice is important, advocacy is transformative.

For women cardiologists navigating male-dominated environments, sponsorship can be the key factor in determining whether their professional progress is seen and considered or goes unrecognized and under-appreciated. For a young cardiologist, this can be the difference between promotion and stagnation.

What mentorship gives us

A mentor helps you grow your skills, confidence, and ambitions. They help you think through clinical decisions, offer perspective when confidence wavers, normalize the learning curve, and remind you that feeling uncertain does not mean you are unqualified.

Mentorship gives newer physicians a clearer view of what may lie ahead on their career journey and shows them a path toward becoming the kind of practitioner they want to be. Having the option of seeking help from someone with more experience helps physicians build their skills, confidence, and resilience.

In many of our community conversations, mentorship is described as a relationship that allows physicians to bounce cases off each other, asking, “What would you do here?” It’s not just an intellectual partnership but a personal connection that provides much-needed reassurance when imposter syndrome creeps in.

What sponsorship does differently

Where mentorship develops potential into capability, sponsorship makes that capability visible. A sponsor doesn’t just advise you; they advocate for you when you aren’t in the room. They share your achievements, nominate you for committees, recommend you for leadership roles, introduce you to collaborators, and recruit you for new opportunities. And in cardiology, a specialty where women remain underrepresented in leadership, visibility matters.

Speaking invitations, committee appointments, research leadership roles, and industry partnerships can all be career-defining opportunities. These non-clinical opportunities drive visibility, influence, and long-term career progression but are rarely accessed in isolation. They are extended through networks, through people who are willing to say:

“She’s ready.”
“Put her name forward.”
“Have you considered her?”

If we want to close the gender gap in cardiology, we need to be intentional about sponsorship. Leaders must actively identify and advocate for emerging women cardiologists. Institutions must create structures that reward sponsorship, not just mentorship. And as a community, we must move from supporting talent to advancing it.

Why the difference matters

Where mentorship supports, sponsorship advocates; it opens doors, shifts power, and changes career trajectories. Often, this process happens quietly. A senior colleague shares cases to help build credibility. A division chief intentionally recruits women into leadership roles. A department leader commits to being personally involved in the career development of new faculty. A team member actively promotes a colleague’s work and includes her in high-impact projects.

Some mistakenly assume that all of these acts fall under the umbrella of mentorship, but the distinction matters. Even if women are mentored to the point of excellence in their practice, they will rarely reach their full potential if this excellence goes unnoticed. Without someone advocating for women at decision-making tables, we risk developing talent without advancing it. This limits women’s careers and also the magnitude of impact they can have on the patients who need them.

Additionally, if we focus solely on mentorship, we may unintentionally place full responsibility for building a support network on those already overwhelmed. By promoting mentorship and sponsorship equally, we can shift some of this responsibility to institutions and leaders. Mentorship can be initiated by the mentee, but the choice to sponsor another physician must be made by those with the power to be heard.

If we want to change the future of cardiology, mentorship alone is not enough. We must ensure that women are not only supported but actively advanced. Talent that goes unseen cannot lead, and cardiology cannot afford to leave that leadership potential unrealized. If you are a woman physician looking for a global community that invests in your growth, leadership, and career, we invite you to join Women As One.

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