Mentor Programmes-A Shortcut for Women's Academic Careers?

Abstract

This article reports on a formal mentoring project that ran for eighteen months at the University of Uppsala, in Sweden. It investigates the experiences of fourteen women academics at junior and mid-level who were paired with senior academics. Mentoring occurs informally in academic as well as in other types of organizations, yet little in terms of hard evidence is known about its effects. In this case, the investigators wished to learn if mentoring in an academic context could contribute to a narrowing of the gender gap in Swedish higher education. The conclusion was that mentoring makes enough of a difference to the junior faculty concerned that it should be undertaken openly and made available to all junior faculty members wishing to be mentored.