Strategies to Mentor Female Faculty: A Global Issue

Strategies to Mentor Female Faculty: A Global Issue

Cassandra Sligh Conway, Yvonne Sims, Audrey McCrary-Quarles, Cynthia Salley Nicholson, Glacia Ethridge, Michelle Maultsby, Tammara Petrill Thomas, Susan Smith
Copyright: © 2018 |Pages: 25
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-4071-7.ch007
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Abstract

Historically, the percentage of women in higher education has been small. It is important for women to receive mentoring in order to stay in higher education. Mentoring is one of the key determining and empowering factors for measuring whether women faculty stay in higher education positions or decide to leave. This chapter will include the following objectives: 1) provide a review of research on mentoring women in general; 2) provide a review of conceptual and empirical research available on the mentoring experiences of women; 3) discuss the global implications of mentoring women in these careers; 4) provide suggestions and recommendations related to future opportunities that may assist women in becoming empowered to obtain more career and professional development opportunities globally; and 5) provide solutions and recommendations as positive strategies for women to consider at any academic institution, e.g. HBCU, PWI, private, or public universities. Mentoring can assist women in becoming successful both personally and professionally.
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Background

Mentorship can be an effective tool to gain empowerment for many individuals, especially women, in higher education and the workforce. The process of mentoring can be defined as engaging in a working relationship where a “mentor can provide the protégé with opportunities to learn and practice and to reward him or her so that the acquired knowledge, performance and motivation can increase” (Crawford & Smith, 2005, p. 64). Some mentoring relationships may be for short or long term based on the goals or if both the mentor and the mentee are in agreement that the professional relationship is working to meet the needs of the mentee (Blackwell, 1989; Kram, 1989; Smith & Davidson, 1992). According to Abiddin (2012):

In order to react effectively, a mentor must: (1) have certain goals and plans; (2) be a good communicator; (3) have the knowledge and relevant skills about the candidate’s area of interest; (4) be able to establish a good and professional relationship; and (5) be flexible in supervision strategies depending on the individual requirements. In maintaining a good relationship, the mentor and mentee must have certain goals or objectives. The relationship will focus on these and both parties must trust, respect, empathize and be honest with each other. An effective mentor will have access to a range of teaching and learning methods, and will be able to adapt to individual supervisees and to provide clear and focused feedback to facilitate learning. A good relationship can make both parties comfortable with meeting regularly and sharing ideas or knowledge with a view to mentee development. As a protégé, one must be eager to learn, enhance ones self-awareness, learn from mistakes and successes, develop and apply new skills and design action plans or timetables (p. 85).

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