Athene in academe: women mentoring women in the academy1

Abstract

Increasingly, adult educators are expressing interest in the activity of mentoring in the academy. The literature discusses it as primarily a positive adult learner/adult teacher connection. This is evident in its discussion of the structural and personal relationships and of the multiple outcomes associated with the process. A feminist critique of mentoring, however, reveals that these analyses are androcentric. They ignore women academics’ unique location as both ‘same’ and ‘other’ within patriarchal academe. Theoretical consideration of this location yields new understandings of the potentials and problematics of the role of women as mentors. 1Selected portions of this paper were presented at a joint conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education and the New Zealand Association for Research in Education, 22‐26 November, 1992, Geelong, Australia.