“Do you feel you’re being seen?”: Black women undergraduates’ experiences with mentorship

Purpose Race and gender – and their intersection – play an important role in mentorship. In the current study, informed by critical race theory (CRT) and intersectionality, we identified and explored helpful and harmful mentoring experiences among Black women undergraduates. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with Black female undergraduate students ( n = 18) from five undergraduate institutions in the United States. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, a codebook was developed through a series of team meetings, and inductive qualitative coding was performed. Findings Eight major themes were revealed, with three indicating positive mentorship experiences and five indicating negative mentorship experiences. Participants expressed appreciation for effective mentor support concerning professional development, personal concerns, and race-specific support. Experiencing ineffective mentorship compounded other systemic barriers that the participants faced and led them to censor their self-expression while communicating with their mentors. Originality/value This examination of mentoring perspectives from Black women undergraduate students provides a foundation for future directions in mentorship improvement for Black women.