Kate Sleeth's First Guest Forum on Mentoring: Fish Needs Bicycle?
Hi Friends of Women in Science,
Kate Sleeth is a postdoctoral research fellow at an institution in Southern California. She blogs about women in science, and she has agreed to write some guest postings for our forum focusing on mentoring. Cheers, Laura
Here is her first posting:
The saying goes "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." I have heard differently; a young female scientist needs a female mentor like a fish needs a bicycle! Before everyone gets upset and denies that females can be the harshest critics of other women, let's consider the possibility this is true.
I have been fortunate to have a wonderful female mentor (Superwoman) who was encouraging, gave networking opportunities, career advice and generally was inspirational to work for. I am incredibly proud of the work I performed in her laboratory and learnt a lot from her. She is a skilled leader, able to influence decisions and motivate workers while maintaining an unthreatening femininity. I have also been unfortunate to work for an awful female mentor who was micromanaging and frankly bullied her subordinates. It was her way or the highway, even when she was scientifically wrong! I would like to think that my wonderful mentor reflects the majority of female tenured scientists, however, after discussions with my peers I am not so sure.
I am told that the women scientists who actively hinder, bully or are unhelpful to other female scientists believe that there is a certain amount of hazing necessary to reach their status. If they did not receive assistance to get where they are, why should they help others? I think this is a very selfish reason to act in that way. If diagnosed with Tuberculosis there are treatments available today; with the same reasoning, it would sound excusable to put the patient through an iron lung before giving them the antibiotics available. Does that sound reasonable? I doubt it, so why would anybody in a leadership position believe that everyone should have the same experience they did? Times change. There are many more women in science, we should rejoice and embrace this fact. Women who have established themselves should be available to mentor others so they don't have to experience the tough times endured previously. This will hopefully have the benefit that more females remain in science, at all levels.
It is a sad fact that although more women are taking scientific undergraduate and postgraduate studies we still lose them over the course of their careers, to a lesser extent than males. There is much discussion and controversy over why this is. Women who are in a position to help other females might want to consider the harm they may cause to an others' career paths if they are less than helpful. In this scenario they couldn't possibly complain about the lack of female counterparts. However, it has been suggested that women in these positions enjoy the novelty of being one of the few ladies. I would also say that this is a disgraceful attitude. I would hate to be the novelty because of my gender, I would want to be appreciated for my scientific prowess.
I hope that one day all female trainee scientists are lucky enough to meet a female mentor like my Superwoman. The sisterhood of scientists could be wonderfully supportive to each other. Let's remove an unnecessary stress from our already busy and stress filled lives; set aside our own prejudices and experiences; and help the next generation of female scientists to build on our achievements. In this way we can truly break through the glass ceiling for all females and not just a select few.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not reflect the views or policies of the Institution she works for.
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Hello Everyone,
Thanks for all the comments, it is wonderful to interact with like minded women. It is such an honour to be asked to contribute to this blog. Thanks again Laura for this opportunity.
Specifically to answer Laura R I am a huge fan of Postdoc Associations (PDA). I am the President/Chair of the Association where I work and am also involved with the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA). Both local PDA's and the NPA offer fantastic training opportunities which I encourage all postdocs to participate in. I really enjoy discovering what the postdocs on my campus need to progress in their career paths and then organising events to assist that.
I try to make my Biocareers blog inspirational and encouraging for graduate students and postdocs searching for new opportunities. I therefore heavily endorse both the NPA and AWIS at every available opportunity. Hopefully it will inspire other young women to participate. I am the first female chair of my institutes PDA and hope to be the first of many.
Hi Laura,
Thanks for getting some input from a postdoc. It's a point of view we need to hear more often, where the new ideas can come from. I love the fact that a lot of places now have a postdoc organization and wonder how Kate feels about those?
I've met both kinds of women too, but I've been lucky enough to stay away from the bicycles in choosing mentors. I agree that some women can do the mentoring job in an outstanding way. But not all, so watch out!
I've just looked at Kate's blog (see address in previous comment box) and I really recommend it. She covers outreach to junior high kids, negotiation (great summary of a talk at WIST on this subject), is kidding around in lab such as making the Bad Project video good bonding or a waste of time, and other career related issues. Take a look!
best,
Laura
Kate has given me her blog address for you, Suzannah, and here it is: http://biocareers.com/bio-careers-blog?title=&tid=All&uid=Kate+M.+Sleeth
Enjoy!
Laura
Hi Helen,
I think it was especially hard for the First Female Profs etc to look at women's issues with any sympathy; their success came from being as much like men as they could. (Marian for Math, I know you escaped this, but I'm generalizing now).
Since some of those women are still full professors at R1 universities, we almost necessarily have a mixture. I'm very pleased to find a number of women professors at site where I'm discussing my memoir who are very interested in sharing their family/career balance strategies and methods for coping with bias with the upcoming generation. And some of them started out as First Females but have softened up, and admit it!
cheers,
Laura
I think its changing, so I can't comment on the majority today. I just know that in the 90s as a grad student I couldn't find a single woman mentor who could openly talk about family issues or even give a balanced view of science with me. I found plenty of men who could. I perceived the women just as you described them--angry, bitter and vengeful. It certainly didn't convince me that I wanted to be like them!
I hope that the women coming up today are finding it easier to mentor young women, but in talking with my women friends who have achieved tenure in the past couple of years, they are still angry and bitter about not having a family life in most cases. And that anger makes it tough for them to be open with their female students. Also their perceived marginalization by their male colleagues breeds anger there too...tough to be inspirational carrying all that emotional baggage.
Right on, Kate! I hate the idea that women who have made it must kick those coming up in the face to give them the same experience they had on their way up. It's ugly and it's hurting the chances of some very good young women scientists. I'm glad you got out from under the Infrawoman and got the Superwoman instead.
MKS
Hi Laura,
Could you give us a blog address for Kate? I'd like to look at her own blog postings after reading this. She sounds like an articulate and passionate young woman scientist.
