MENTORING
By Lis Merrick
In our latest column dedicated to mentoring, we look at using gender when matching. Should we carry on minimising its effect, or start maximising it instead?
So much matching actually seeks to play down the gender angle, but I believe that in effective design it is possible to use gender creatively to maximise relationship potential in different types of mentoring. Let’s consider mentor gender briefly in three types of programme:
1. Talent Mentoring
Scandura and Ragins (1993) put forward the idea that the sex of the mentor in itself is too simplistic and that understanding common factors underlying men’s and women’s behaviour is a better indicator of the success of relationships.
Bem (1974) defined masculinity and femininity as not being situated at opposite ends of a single dimension, but rather falling along two separate and independent dimensions.
This spectrum provides individuals the freedom and flexibility to exhibit male or female-typed attributes in response to a given situation.
In talent mentoring programmes, often mentees are assertive and outgoing people who are viewed as having high potential and possess a profile arguably more aligned with a masculine than a feminine role orientation. They need a mentor assertive enough to have credibility with the mentee. This can be of either gender.
In female talent schemes, I find women working in a heavily male-dominated culture are often more likely to understand better the culture/context they are operating in when matched with a male mentor. However, women who have a female mentor benefit greatly from having a role model who provides the correct psycho-social attributes. This is not an issue in more evenly balanced gender contexts, but if you have fewer female mentors, it can help with your matching decisions.
2. Maternity Mentoring
With maternity mentoring, you would expect mothers to be the ideal mentor to a new mum going through the enormous transitions of having a baby and taking a career break.
However, both men who are fathers and women who have not had children themselves make excellent mentors. The attribute of compassionate empathy is key and some of the biggest learning for men in maternity mentoring programmes is the reflection on the experiences their own partners had, which may not have resonated with them at the time.
In one senior women’s programme, with a high proportion of maternity transition, all the mentors are men and all have been excellent.
3. Knowledge Transfer
Generally, in knowledge transfer programmes (often in engineering/high-tech type organisations), female mentors do not exist, but the mentees are a mixture of men and women. The biggest issue is persuading the male mentors that they want to be mentors, as knowledge tends to be power. Identifying more women as possible mentors, perhaps earlier in their careers, is one way of redressing this brain drain.
So much could be discussed around gender and matching, but I hope this has given you a taste of some of its implications when matching.
- Next issue: does group mentoring really exist and (depending on your viewpoint), is it a useful learning intervention?
References
T A Scandura and B R Ragins, ‘The effects of sex and gender role orientation on mentorship in male-dominated occupations’, In Journal of Vocational Behavior, 43 (3), pp251-265, 1993
S L Bem, ‘The measurement of psychological androgyny’, In Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, pp155-162, 1974