The gig economy and online freelancing are creating new opportunities for women across sectors, especially in flexible and platform-based work. From beauty and care services to digital freelancing and AI-related work, women are participating in many forms of gig work, often while balancing responsibilities at home and navigating challenges related to access, affordability, safety, and visibility.
At the same time, mentorship and peer learning are becoming important support systems that help women build confidence, exchange knowledge, and navigate the evolving world of work more effectively.
In this conversation, Dr. Madhuri Dubey, Founder and Director, National Skills Network-NSN, spoke with Ms. Pooja Gianchandani, Global Lead – Skills for Gig Economy at GIZ Germany, and Ms. Miriam Oliver, Junior Advisor – Gig Economy Initiative at GIZ, on the role of mentorship, community-building, and inclusive learning approaches for women freelancers and gig workers.
To learn more about ‘Mentorship and Peer Learning for Women Workers’, click here to download the toolkit!
Below are excerpts from the conversation. To watch the full video, click below.
Q. How do women experience gig work differently?
Ms. Miriam Oliver: Gig work includes many visible and invisible sectors. While delivery and transport services are more visible, women are more prevalent in sectors such as beauty, care, domestic services, and online freelancing.
There is also a growing number of women involved in digital and AI-related work, including:
- Content moderation
- Data labeling
- Transcription and cloud work
In some regions, women’s participation in these digital services is even higher than men’s.
Ms. Pooja Gianchandani: Women experience the gig economy differently in terms of access, affordability, and acknowledgement.
Many women depend on family or community members to access digital platforms and online work opportunities. Affordability is another challenge, especially for women working in home-based services, where transport costs, internet access, or equipment become barriers to accepting work opportunities.
Women freelancers also deal with:
- Online gender-based violence
- Safety concerns
- Algorithmic bias and discrimination
These factors shape the overall experience of women freelancers differently from men.
Q. Why is mentorship important for women freelancers?
Ms. Miriam Oliver: Many women freelancers often feel isolated and unsure about how to navigate platform work. Questions around portfolios, LinkedIn profiles, rights, visibility, and finding work safely continue to remain common.
Mentorship creates:
- A community for shared learning
- Flexible and peer-driven support systems
- Spaces where women can exchange experiences openly
The approach moves away from traditional classroom learning and focuses more on collaboration, exchange, and community-building.
There are already many informal spaces where women exchange information and opportunities, such as WhatsApp groups, and mentorship programs help strengthen these support systems in a more structured way.
Q. How does peer learning support women gig workers?
Ms. Pooja Gianchandani: Unlike traditional workplaces, gig workers are highly dispersed and rarely meet colleagues or peers regularly. This makes peer learning and community-building extremely important.
During the mentorship pilots in Kenya, younger women helped older participants with:
- Technology use
- Platform onboarding
- Creating profiles and navigating digital systems
At the same time, older women supported younger participants in dealing with:
- Online harassment
- Safety concerns
- Navigating difficult situations
These exchanges happened organically once women were brought together in safe and supportive learning spaces.
Q. Why are trust, confidence, and safe spaces important in mentorship programs?
Ms. Miriam Oliver: The mentorship programs created spaces where women could openly discuss personal and sensitive issues that are often normalized or ignored.
This included:
- Online gender-based violence
- Care responsibilities
- Workplace discrimination
- Gender stereotypes
Trust and emotional connection became critical because mentorship communities work effectively only when participants feel genuinely connected and invested in the group.
The programs showed that women were more willing to share, grow, and support each other once they felt emotionally safe within the community.
Q. How does the toolkit support inclusiveness?
Ms. Miriam Oliver: One of the biggest learnings from the mentorship programs was the need to design training around women’s actual experiences instead of assuming a standard learner profile.
A key principle was: “Meet women where they are.”
This included:
- Offering hybrid formats with online and in-person sessions
- Supporting women with care responsibilities
- Providing flexible participation options
- Pairing participants based on comfort and shared experiences
The toolkit was designed as an adaptable framework that institutions and organizations can contextualize according to their own learner groups and environments.
Q. What is needed for successful implementation?
Ms. Pooja Gianchandani: Mentorship is not a quick-fix solution and requires long-term institutional preparedness and support.
Two important prerequisites are:
- Institutions must understand the realities and informality of gig work
- Mentorship initiatives need policy-level and financial incentives to sustain themselves
Mentorship and peer learning should become part of:
- Educational institutions
- Community organizations
- Women’s empowerment programs
- Skilling and training initiatives
Without long-term integration, many programs struggle to continue once project funding ends.
Q. Why is mentor training important?
Ms. Pooja Gianchandani: A mentor may have professional experience but may still not know how to mentor effectively. That is why mentor onboarding and training become critical parts of the process.
The programs included:
- Training of trainers
- Mentor orientation sessions
- Guidance on handling sensitive conversations and situations
In one mentorship interaction, a freelancer learned through her mentor that she could ask an employer for a formal contract. That one realization changed how she approached her work and later influenced many other women in her network.
This demonstrated how mentorship can create a ripple effect within communities.
Also read: Why skills over degrees matter for online freelancing in gig economy
Q. What makes mentorship programs successful?
Ms. Miriam Oliver: Three important success factors emerged consistently:
- Community
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Role models
Mentorship becomes powerful when women see others from similar backgrounds succeeding in freelancing and digital work. For many participants, it was the first time they had interacted with women role models working in these sectors.
Ms. Pooja Gianchandani: Another important success factor is the involvement of men within households and communities.
Women’s participation in gig work is also influenced by:
- Shared household responsibilities
- Support within families and communities
- Inclusive conversations around work and caregiving
During one mentorship pilot, male participants also expressed interest in similar mentorship spaces because they faced many of the same challenges within the gig economy.
The broader takeaway was that mentorship and peer learning should contribute towards building a more inclusive and supportive ecosystem for all gig workers.
