Stairs through the ceiling

Mentoring can have a big impact on a person’s career, but because there still aren’t a lot of women in high-level positions, it can be hard for younger women to find female role models. That is why two members of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum leadership group started Women Opening Doors for Women, an annual dinner that pairs established executives with aspiring leaders.

The event, started in 2006, became more popular as the job market tightened. Last month’s dinner drew 130 women looking for mentors, up 50 percent from 2008.

“We’re not only going to encourage young women to reach up, but also encourage women of achievement to reach down,’’ said event cofounder Vanessa Kirsch, president of the venture philanthropy fund New Profit Inc., who started an event with the same title when she lived in Washington, D.C. “The nature of this economic downturn is there’s a generation that could sort of be left out, and we have to help encourage them.’’

The economy isn’t the only reason for the growth in female mentorship. Today’s female executives also want to spark a renewed dialogue about working women.

“I graduated from college in the late ’70s when there was still an active public dialogue about women and how they could carve out a role for themselves in the workplace. And that dialogue no longer exists because there is this presumption that women can be whatever they want to be,’’ said Heather Campion, chief administrative officer at Northeast Bank and cofounder of Women Opening Doors for Women. “There’s a huge hunger among women in this generation particularly to find other women role models.’’

Indeed, the Massachusetts Conference for Women, an annual speaker event for professional women that has had a 30 percent rise in attendance since 2008, recently added 20-minute “speed mentoring’’ sessions to help younger women looking to move up.

Mentoring has been shown to give women a boost in the workplace. Women with mentors had 27 percent higher salary growth than women without mentors, according to a 2010 Catalyst survey of employed graduates of top MBA pro grams.

“I think women realize that they may have the technical skills, but what else is needed in order to succeed in the workplace?’’ said Carol Fulp, a senior vice president at John Hancock Financial Services and one of the Opening Doors mentors. “What are the unwritten rules?’’

Mentoring doesn’t necessarily level the playing field with men. The study by Catalyst Inc., a nonprofit that works to expand opportunities for women in business, found that although women with mentors were 56 percent more likely to start their careers as midlevel managers or above than women without mentors, men with mentors increased their odds of starting out as a manager by 93 percent, and they made $9,200 more on average than the women.

At the sixth annual Opening Doors event, held on a recent frigid night at the State House, 23 mentors and the 130 up-and-coming leaders they invited — women in their 20s and 30s who work in their companies or their fields — gathered in the Senate chamber for opening remarks from Senate President Therese Murray. She reminded the younger women how far they still have to go, pointing out that the proverbial glass ceiling had been shattered by their predecessors, but shards of glass remained.

“Notice I say shards,’’ she said. “It’s still not open yet.’’

After Murray’s introduction, the women split into groups at tables categorized by industry, such as finance, communications, government, higher education, and entrepreneurship, to eat spinach salad and roast chicken and talk about their careers. At one table, Sandra Fenwick, president of Children’s Hospital Boston, led a group of doctors, researchers, and health care administrators in a detailed discussion about changes in health care policy.

At a nearby table, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum director Anne Hawley; Alison Taunton-Rigby, president of the Natick biotechnology company RiboNovix Inc.; and Northeast Bank executive Campion talked with women interested in nonprofit leadership about double standards in the workplace, including why it’s acceptable for men to swear in the office, but not for women.

The challenge of balancing management and motherhood was also a big topic, something Hill Holliday president Karen Kaplan said was rarely talked about when she started out.

“We kind of hid our kids,’’ said Kaplan, an Opening Doors mentor who began her career as the receptionist at the advertising firm in 1982. “For some reason it was a noble thing for a guy to say, ‘I’m leaving early to go to a soccer game’ . . . but for a woman it just wasn’t smart from a career perspective.’’

Lauren Pimpare, 33, had sat at Kaplan’s table at the inaugural Opening Doors event and was so inspired that in 2009 she and four other women formed their own networking and mentoring group, Tomorrow’s Women Today. The group, which had a table at the most recent Opening Doors event, meets for regular discussions with leading women in the community and also mentors young girls, including a group of Girl Scouts whom they helped create business plans.

Women need these types of mentoring events “because we don’t have golf courses,’’ Pimpare, a business operations manager at Tufts Medical Center, said with a laugh.

Indeed, women in male-dominated fields can find it difficult to break into networking circles. “My industry has a lot of men,’’ said Kathryn Hudak, 29, a CPA at a Boston public accounting firm who specializes in health care and nonprofits. “It’s hard for me to be able to establish a connection.’’

But after sitting with a group of other aspiring leaders at last month’s Opening Doors event, Hudak left feeling inspired — and more committed to reaching out to the other women in her office.

The executives who serve as mentors find inspiration at the dinner, too. Campion is in the process of developing a new online savings bank with the help of insights she gained from the younger women at the Opening Doors event: “It’s my own little focus group on how another generation of women approach their finances.’’

Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com.