Growing evidence indicates that women’s involvement and leadership are important to creating inclusive conservation programs, increasing likelihood of success, and achieving sustainability. Effective future women leaders can be created by providing them with dedicated mentorship, as in long-term support and dynamic learning that encompass the entirety of a person, not only their technical training. Mentorship by women is key to ensuring more women are empowered, can advance their careers, and become independent leaders in their domains. The ways mentorship contribute to a woman’s career have been frequently studied in medicine, sports, and education, yet rarely in conservation. Providing real examples of long-term mentorships centered on the perspective of a mentee from the Global South will demonstrate an applicable roadmap towards recruiting and retaining women in conservation. We recount two sets of ten-year long mentor-mentee relationships—one with a foreign mentor and the other domestic—based on our personal experiences in Indonesia. We examined issues raised by Indonesian women in conservation and provided targeted solutions that may be applicable to a broader audience. The resulting group of empowered, capable women can rely on one another for technical and moral support, along with work together to shift social norms towards becoming more inclusive of women in more varied roles and at multiple career levels in conservation. In highlighting real examples, mentees can understand what they should seek out and expect from mentorship, and how women from the Global North and Global South can provide true mentorship to more women without access to the same opportunities. We hope to inspire more women from the Global South to continue their careers and be leaders in conservation.

The hunting and consumption of wildlife is a global practice with practices that are socially nested, mediated, and shared across social categories, including gender. Research into wildlife trade increasingly recognizes the importance of understanding and investigating social drivers and processes of hunting and consumption. However, studies of social norms, motivations, and actions specific to women are still lacking within wildlife trade literature, particularly within Southeast Asia. Women are central to how a society operates and to societal practices, and they are fundamental actors in initiating change in these practices. In Southeast Asia, women are especially powerful actors within resident matrilineal and bilateral societies. This article will reflect on wildlife trafficking through the roles and activities of women. While women’s narratives are lacking across all current wildlife trade research, I will highlight in this article critical research gaps, gender-specific issues in methodology, and important research opportunities.