An exploration of women's mentoring : graduate students' perspective

There is evidence that graduate students are in a unique position to benefit from both career and psychOsocial mentoring. A great deal is known about career mentoring functions in graduate school, but less is known about the psychosocial functions and particularly about the psychosocial influences of mentoring within female mentoring pairs, a population which studies suggest may be different from any other mentoring combination. The purpose of this study was to explore the mentoring experiences of women graduate students in mentoring relationships with women professors. The study focused on the potential impact of this mentoring relationship on the psychosocial development of fem£de graduate students. Through in-depth interviews with eight female graduate students, general themes were derived that revealed the nature of the experiences shared between these women and their mentors. The study attempted to address three research questions:

• How do participants define mentoring relationships?
• How do these women mentees describe their mentoring experiences?
• What do the participants' experiences suggest about the psychosocial mentoring of women?

In response to the first research question two primary themes emerged, A Sense of Authenticity and Opportunities for Development. It was through these two themes that women defined mentoring relationships.

Four themes emerged in response to the second research question. These themes were: 1) A Sense of Connection, 2) Relationship of Growth, 3) The Calm During the Storm, and 4) The Safety Net. The themes emerged from the interviews as descriptive of the participants' experiences of their female/female mentoring relationships.

The findings related to the third research question suggest a number of things about the psychosocial mentoring of women. It is evident from the interviews that this type of mentoring was occurring in these relationships, and that mentoring was associated with growth for the participants. The mentoring which occurred for the participants in this study was related to the similarities between the participant and her mentor, and the comfort level that surrounded the relationship. A third finding suggested that the psychosocial mentoring of the women involved in the study was not dependent on factors such as age, frequency of contact, or length of the mentoring relationship.