Abstract
Although often championed as a universal good, mentoring by and for women in higher education can bring both challenges and benefits for those involved. This chapter, based on the autoethnographic reflections of four women at different career stages in higher education, explores the complexities of mentoring and being mentored in formal and informal mentoring relationships. Through reflections and connection with the mentoring literature, this chapter explores the ways that mentoring can be experienced and practiced as an affirming developmental activity or generative form of hopeful resilience within, and resistance to, an increasingly competitive and individualised work environment. It also recognises how, for some, it can simultaneously and inadvertently work to uphold the status quo and even harm those involved. The chapter concludes by promoting the potential for feminist mentoring approaches, including femtoring.