Mentoring is the establishment of a one-on-one relationship between an experienced person, the mentor, and a less experienced person, the mentee, aimed at providing professional instruction and guidance. Several mentoring initiatives have been set up over the past ten years, either in Europe or in USA, in order to favor the presence of women in science and technology. At the high school level, mentoring has been designed to encourage girls to enter scientific universities; at the university level, female students have been given support to develop their research skills and decide about their profession; at the graduated student level, women have been helped in starting their professional career. This contribution focuses on mentoring experiences made by women in the specific fields of Engineering and Computer Science. The purpose of our analysis is to identify motivations behind mentoring initiatives and critical issues to be faced when designing this kind of experiences. A further objective is that of verifying the possibility to start a similar initiative in our institute, a research institute active in different fields of science and technology.
Can Mentoring be used as a Positive Action to favor the presence of Women in Science?
Armaroli, Cristiana;Beatrici, Sara;Ferrario, Lorenza;Mich, Ornella;Perini, Anna
2002-01-01
Abstract
Mentoring is the establishment of a one-on-one relationship between an experienced person, the mentor, and a less experienced person, the mentee, aimed at providing professional instruction and guidance. Several mentoring initiatives have been set up over the past ten years, either in Europe or in USA, in order to favor the presence of women in science and technology. At the high school level, mentoring has been designed to encourage girls to enter scientific universities; at the university level, female students have been given support to develop their research skills and decide about their profession; at the graduated student level, women have been helped in starting their professional career. This contribution focuses on mentoring experiences made by women in the specific fields of Engineering and Computer Science. The purpose of our analysis is to identify motivations behind mentoring initiatives and critical issues to be faced when designing this kind of experiences. A further objective is that of verifying the possibility to start a similar initiative in our institute, a research institute active in different fields of science and technology.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
