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[terpsichore]

This article appeared a few days ago and for some reason it struck a nerve with me: http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/03/2009032501c.htm

The author has written an article reminding readers of the importance of mentors and role models especially for women and minorities. I believe deeply in the importance of mentors and role models, but her anecdotes seem oddly out of touch. She seems to think that the most important role models (for women) are women with children.  To reinforce the point, she quotes a grad student as saying "I can't think of an example of a successful female faculty member at our (or any other) top research university who has a 'normal' family situation. The only time these women appear successful both personally and professionally is if a spouse dedicates his career to helping his wife succeed."

Not to pick on this student, but what is a “normal” family? A husband and wife with 2 kids? Does that mean that a woman with no children cannot be a good role model? Or a same-sex couple with or without children? What about a woman who marries someone with children from a previous marriage?

Given the number of anguished posts on these fora from people trying to establish and sustain careers while maintaining a relationship and sometimes raising children, we shouldn’t gloss over the difficulties that new faculty are likely to encounter by simply presenting a handful of successful role models.

How did others see this article?

[systeme_d_]

Personally, I found the author's heteronormativity and other assumptions about what constitutes a "family" to be very offputting.

[fiona]

I was bothered by the assumption that only women have to do the role modeling/mentoring. This means that every woman has an extra responsibility, one that won't be "counted" when she's judged for hiring, promotion, grants, or other rewards.

This is the same thing that's been done to African American faculty for years, and many of them drown under the unacknowledged, unrewarded extra responsibility.

I know white men are unlikely to change the world, but they ought to be criticized more for failing to do so, and for assuming that women and minorities will teach each other, explain explain explain to white men, and eagerly take on the responsibilities for things white men won't do.

The Fiona

[terpsichore]

Thank you both for putting this more clearly than I did. I hoped the CHE would be publishing more nuanced views of mentoring and role models by now.

[parispundit]

I am not sure I understand La Fiona's post. Is it that white males ought to be mentoring women and people of color and are not doing so, or that they can't do so?

[crowie]

I am not sure I understand La Fiona's post. Is it that white males ought to be mentoring women and people of color and are not doing so, or that they can't do so?

I think it's that they are not but ought to.

[scampster]

I am not sure I understand La Fiona's post. Is it that white males ought to be mentoring women and people of color and are not doing so, or that they can't do so?

I think it's that they are not but ought to.

I guess if there has been one thing I have learned so far as a woman in a male-dominated field is to stop looking to people who look like me for mentoring - I have had several male mentors who have been much more helpful and supportive than a female mentor I had through a program on campus (and I don't consider it any failure on her part - I liked her but we didn't click so to speak, which I think is a problem of assigned mentoring programs).

I did want to comment on the idea of role models for women being women with children. For me, if I want a role model for how to have a fulfilling life and research career without children, I have many males I can look up to. And I am sure I can find all permutations of family dynamics amongst the faculty in my department. But if I happen to be one of those women who does want to have children, the male faculty cannot be role models for me since they aren't bearing the children and biology does a play a role here.

Personally, I am rather ambivalent about children and so my role models tend to be people (male of female) who have a good work life balance. But there are very few women in my department and thus if you were a grad student wondering "is it even possible to have children and a research career?" you have to dig to find women who have made it work, and that can be discouraging.

That being said, obviously women who want to have children some day are the not the only ones who need mentors and role models...

[fiona]

Belatedly, my point was that white men ought to do mentoring, but they don't.

So they have a lot more research and leisure time than women and people of color.

The Fiona

[parispundit]

Well, as a white male, when I needed mentoring as a new faculty member, I didn't get much. I did try to do some mentoring myself, which, as it happened, was chiefly for women and non-white people, because that was chiefly who the new hires after me in my department were. I think that mentoring is not high on the priority list for many academics, regardless of gender or color. What is unfortunate is that African-Americans (less so white women, in my limited experience) get stuck with huge quantities of it, like it or not.

[polly_mer]

Well, as a white male, when I needed mentoring as a new faculty member, I didn't get much. I did try to do some mentoring myself, which, as it happened, was chiefly for women and non-white people, because that was chiefly who the new hires after me in my department were. I think that mentoring is not high on the priority list for many academics, regardless of gender or color. What is unfortunate is that African-Americans (less so white women, in my limited experience) get stuck with huge quantities of it, like it or not.

Well, in my experience as a woman in a male-dominated field, the formal mentoring programs are basically garbage.

Instead, informal, personal mentoring has been very valuable for me, with nearly all of that done by heterosexual white males.  Every time I interview, I make conscious note of how open and friendly the prospective coworkers and colleagues are so that I will likely be able to get the necessary mentoring.

[job_seeker1]

As a female in the humanities, I have been finding the ongoing discussion in this article series a little frustrating because it seems to assume the problem (about finding a work/life balance for female faculty, esp. with children and/or elder care issues) is primarily centered in the STEM fields. I always knew I wanted children, regardless of whether it was in a partnered relationship or not, but ever since I was in graduate school I have had to look far and wide to find ANY successful female role models in my field who have balanced the tenure track and motherhood. In the department where I earned my PhD, having a child before tenure was extremely difficult to manage successfully -- only one woman did so and continued on to tenure while I was there, and she noted that she felt she had to choose between having another child or a second book (which the department was pressuring her to complete). Others waited until after tenure, only to find their fertility compromised by age. In my current department, which is extremely large for my field, there is only one other tenure-track female faculty member with a young child (there are some tenured faculty with grown children, though they seem to have had their children before entering academe). So, yes, I'd love to have mentors to address this part of my career concerns, but the assumption in the series seems to be it's a non-issue, or only a minor issue, for women in more "female-friendly" fields. In reality, having children while on the tenure track can be a lonely, lonely (and scary) existence for a female junior faculty member.

[macaroon]

I didn't find the article that off-putting.

I am a woman and had kids early in my academic career - one during grad school and the other shortly later during my postdoc.  I was also very successful in my research when I had babies in the house.  It came as a surprise to me that young female grad students (and even undergrads) were looking towards me as a role model.  I can honestly say, though, that the amount of time and energy I spent mentoring them did NOT go unnoticed.  I'm pretty sure it ended up in my LOR's.

I've had great mentors - but the best of them were childless, and offered me advice on my career, not my family life.