The BMA Women Mentorship Program: Strengthening professional and socio-emotional competencies

BMA Women was created in 2016 with the aim of promoting professional development for women at the firm, ensuring a receptive work environment, and contributing to networking opportunities, reflecting our commitment to gender equity.

In the years since it was created, BMA Women has carried out various initiatives, including changes to some of our internal policies, such as increasing the length of maternity and paternity leave and more balanced gender representation on internal committees, along with roundtable discussions, women's networking events and events to raise awareness of the challenges faced by women in their professional and personal lives.

In 2022, BMA Women launched a project that had been in the works for some time: the Mentorship Program.

The program is aligned with one of BMA Women's main objectives, which is to realize the potential of women in our organization by helping them to overcome challenges and to boost their career progression, though dialogue and guidance with more experienced colleagues.

In the program's first cycle, both men and women mentors, all BMA partners, took part, and began with training sessions to help them make the most of the mentorship. The mentees were 26 women practitioners from our Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília offices, who highlight some of the program's main benefits: increased self-confidence and self-awareness, tools to build a personal image capable of sustaining their career objectives, development of their capacity to influence and delegate, and support in developing a career plan.

The Mentorship Program was supervised by the BMA Women Committee, in conjunction with a specialized consulting firm engaged to help us implement the program.

After assessing the first cycle and its impacts, strengths and weaknesses, we are making adjustments to improve the program and getting ready to launch the second cycle in 2023.

We believe that inspiring women's leadership strengthens BMA and its values and culture of diversity.

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