General Resources

Braun, Ronnie. “The Downside of Mentoring.” In WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION: CHANGES AND CHALLENGES, ed. by Lynne Brodie Welch, 191-198. New York: Praeger, 1990. Not all mentor relationships are positive experiences.

Ervin, Elizabeth Ellen. “Mentoring Recomposed: A Study of Gender, History, and the Discourses of Education.” Ph.D. diss., University of Arizona, 1994. “Mentoring relationships reproduce historically specific constructions of masculinity and femininity…current mentoring policies and practices within the academy do not take seriously the perspectives and experiences of women…” (abstract).

Garner, Shirley Nelson. “Mentoring Lessons.” WOMEN’S STUDIES QUARTERLY 22, no. 1/2 (1994): 6-13. Mentoring means providing both academic advice and psychological support.

Ginsberg, Elaine K. “Helping Women Negotiate the System Through Mentoring.” CONCERNS 24, no. 1 (Winter 1994): 37-43. Reviews concepts and strategies for campus and professional mentors.

Hall, Roberta M. and Bernice R. Sandler. ACADEMIC MENTORING FOR WOMEN STUDENTS AND FACULTY: A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD WAY TO GET AHEAD. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges, 1983. 15 p. Prepared for the AAC Project on the Status and Education of Women. ED240891 available from EDRS.

Howard-Vital, Michelle R. and Rosalind Morgan. “African American Women and Mentoring.” 1993. ED360425 available from EDRS. Survey of sample membership in the Association of Black Women in Higher Education, about half of whom were administrators. Majority had had mentors and 96 percent said they would like to be mentors.

Matczynski, Thomas J. and Kelvie C. Comer. “Mentoring Women and Minorities in Higher Education: An Anecdotal Record.” 21 p. paper (1991). ED331376, available from EDRS. Reviews higher education literature on mentoring, including four basic stages of a mentoring relationship (initiation, cultivation, separation, and redefinition). Ends with application of the stages to the relationship between a new academic dean and a consultant, from their two perspectives.

Moore, Kathryn M. and Marilyn J. Amey. “Some Faculty Leaders Are Born Women.” NEW DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT SERVICES 44 (Winter 1988): 39-50. Mentoring as a vehicle for leadership development of students and faculty.

O’Leary, Virginia E. and Judith M. Mitchell. “Women Connecting With Women: Networks and Mentors in the United States.” In STORMING THE TOWER: WOMEN IN THE ACADEMIC WORLD, ed. by Suzanne Stiver Lie and Virginia E. O’Leary, 58-73. East Brunswick, NJ: Nichols/GP Publishing, 1990. Suggests that the recognition of reciprocal benefits is the most critical element in successful mentor-mentee relationships (p.67) and that the junior women should restrict what they expect from senior women and rely on peers for “socio-emotional needs” (p.69).

Sandler, Bernice R. “Women as Mentors: Myths and Commandments.” EDUCATIONAL HORIZONS 73 (Spring 1995): 105-7. Originally published in THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION (March 10, 1993), this article advises that mentoring is important but not necessarily essential to success. Sandler offers “ten commandments of mentoring” to ensure greater likelihood of positive mentoring.

Sheldon, Amy. “A Feminist Perspective on Women as Mentors.” CAREER PLANNING AND ADULT DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL 6, no. 3 (Fall 1990): 16-20. Many gender issues affect women mentors, including learning to function in a male-dominated system.

Sheldon, Amy. “He Was Her Mentor, She Was His Muse: Women as Mentors, New Pioneers.” In WOMEN IN THE LINGUISTICS PROFESSION: THE CORNELL LECTURES. CONFERENCE ON WOMEN IN LINGUISTICS, ITHACA, NY, JUNE 1989, ed. by Alice Davison and Penelope Eckert, 208-222. Washington, DC: Linguistic Society of America, 1990. Women faculty members have learned how to function in a male world, but their experiences and perspectives are different from male colleagues. Their dilemma as mentors is how much of this knowledge to impart.

Stalker, Joyce. “Athene in Academe: Women Mentoring Women in the Academy.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFELONG EDUCATION 13, no. 5 (September/Ocober 1994): 361-72. Provides a feminist critique of the conceptualization of mentoring. Women academics are simultaneously “same” (with privileges like their male colleagues) and “other” (in the minority and hold lesser positions). As mentors they should build on this circumstance as a strength and use it for transforming patriarchal culture.

Welch, Lynne B., ed. WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION: CHANGES AND CHALLENGES. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1990. Section Five: Mentoring and Women in Higher Education contains five articles, which are listed separately on this bibliography.