You've been watching this happen for a while now. The mentorship circles quietly dissolving. The sponsorship programs rebranded into "optional networking." The DEI team that used to run your company's women's leadership cohort — gone, or down to one person doing the work of five.
And you've been absorbing it. Adjusting. Maybe keeping your head down a little more. Playing it safe. Half of women say they're now prioritizing job security over career growth. You might be one of them.
I get it. But here's what I need you to hear: playing it safe is the most dangerous thing you can do right now.
What's Actually Happening
Here's the thing. DEI didn't create sponsorship. Men have always had it — the senior leader who pulls them into high-visibility projects, the VP who drops their name in a closed-door meeting. DEI briefly formalized what was already happening informally for one group and tried to extend it to everyone else.
Now the formal structures are being dismantled. But the informal ones? They're running just fine. Men are still more likely to be assigned projects with larger budgets, higher visibility, and direct C-suite engagement. For every 100 men promoted to first manager, only 81 women make it. Only 54 women of color.
The sponsorship gap has been real for years: only 31% of entry-level women have a sponsor, compared to 45% of men. That's a 14-point head start — and it compounds at every level above you. What's changed isn't the gap. It's that the programs that were slowly closing it are disappearing. Corporate commitment to women's advancement has dropped from 70% to 50%. A ProPublica investigation found that 90% of workers targeted in DEI-related terminations are women or nonbinary.
The gap isn't new. But the effort to close it has been pulled.
You're not over-mentored because mentorship is bad. You're over-mentored because mentorship without sponsorship is preparation without a destination. Advice tells you what to do. Advocacy gets you in the room.
The Sponsorship Triad
You don't need a program. You don't need a massive network. You need three people playing three specific roles:
1. A Sponsor — Someone senior who'll put their reputation on the line for you. Not someone who gives advice. Someone who says your name when you're not in the room. Ask yourself: who has seen my best work AND has organizational power? That overlap is your candidate.
2. A Peer Advocate — Someone at your level who trades visibility with you. You recommend them for projects. They recommend you. This isn't networking. It's reciprocal advocacy — and research shows employees with formal sponsors are 48% more likely to believe their workplace gives equal advancement opportunities.
3. A Strategic Connector — Someone who bridges you to your next orbit. Not your current network. The one above it. The person who says, "You should meet..." and means it.
Here's what that sounds like in practice: "I noticed you led the Q4 integration project. I'm working on something similar — could I buy you a coffee and hear how you approached the stakeholder piece?" That's not schmoozing. That's building infrastructure nobody can disband.
Your One Thing This Week
Do the advocacy audit. List everyone with real influence over your next opportunity — your manager, their manager, the VP, the peer who gets pulled into hiring decisions. Now circle who has actively advocated for you in the last six months. Not advised. Advocated.
If your number is zero, you're not behind. You're just seeing clearly for the first time. And that clarity is where the real strategy starts.
The programs are gone. Build the infrastructure that doesn't need them.
— Molly
P.S. This week's podcast episode goes deeper on exactly this — "How to Get Promoted When Nobody's in Your Corner" walks you through the full advocacy audit and the three roles in detail. If this issue hit a nerve, listen to this episode now.