Faculty Mentoring: Being Fishers of Women

• In Event: 35.058 - Women Leading for Social Justice Across P–20 Contexts

Abstract

Developing successful careers in universities for women often means negotiating conflicts that arise due to women’s minority status. The relationships that women faculty form with other women in the academy may be of particular importance to identity construction, developing a research agenda and effective research strategies, and overcoming feelings of isolation. The purpose of this paper was to identify narratives of women who have experienced success in the academy in departments of educational leadership through collaborative relationships with other women faculty. Individual standpoints were collected of the lived experiences of these women. Themes were developed during data analysis unique to this particular group of women and included the following: double jeopardy – being a woman and identifying as a feminist; empowerment through knowledge; social webbing; drawbacks; and paying it forward through activism.

The rate at which the women in this collaborative experienced success in such a short period of time indicates that collaborative networks are powerful tools for women faculty and could also possibly serve to benefit women leaders practicing in K-12 education. According to Dickens and Sagaria (1997), developing thriving careers requires the negotiation of conflicts. Riger, Stokes, Raja, and Sullivan (1997), identified such conflicts for women as lack of participation in informal socializing, lack of mentoring, sexist attitudes, professional isolation, and gender/family-friendly policies that may not actually be embraced by those in university settings. The collaborative effort described here helped the women participants overcome several of the conflicts noted above. Moreover, they were empowered via sharing both formal and informal knowledge about university "norms." and the negotiation of expectations was crucial to the hiring and promotion processes, as well as combating professional isolation. The social webbing that occurred between members of within the collaborative and between contacts within larger outside groups also served as opportunities for socialization and mentoring, alleviating professional isolation.

One of the most vital lessons learned from the collaborative is the power that social webbing and networking holds for creating a cyclical movement toward the constant mentoring of women via the concept of paying it forward. This paper suggests that women who empower themselves through networking and social webbing are more likely and able to help other women new to the field by mentoring and facilitating social relationships with and for them. When studying and learning from the themes that emerged from the interviews, it became apparent that while many of the social justice issues mentioned in the literature were effectively alleviated, responding to sexist attitudes and changing policies and practices were resisted less effectively. The women spoke of encountering sexist attitudes and assumptions, but did not share strategies they had used to push change. Rather, they chose to work quietly behind the scenes, finding ways to push their agendas and personal careers forward without jeopardizing their opportunities for tenure and promotion.

Author

• Whitney Sherman Newcomb, Virginia Commonwealth University