){kind=logo}
){kind=icon}
){kind=logo}
){kind=icon}
Mentoring is an invaluable resource for teaching and establishing a lasting link between the learner and the subject of study or work.
According to statistics presented by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), women occupy only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, according to statistics presented by the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Why so few? Reasons include stereotypes, the lack of educational focus to include them in scientific production activities, gender roles inculcated in the family, etc. Our next webinar will address a different cause: the lack of effective mentoring in STEM areas from a gender perspective.
Entitled “Mentoring that Guides, Inspires, and Orients – Women in STEM,” the next broadcast of Observatory Webinars will address the development of women in the scientific field, the progress to date, and what needs to be done to balance the female presence in the classrooms and the offices that produce science. The broadcast will take place this Tuesday, March 29, at 4:00 p.m. (Central Mexico).
One of the critical points to be discussed is how to mentor to motivate women to enter and remain in scientific work. Women who have had life experiences and professional careers in STEM can inspire and share their stories with other applicants interested in these areas of knowledge through a mentor-mentee relationship. This method of accompaniment and teaching can bring significant benefits in the learning process and contribute to the permanence of women students and professionals in STEM. According to All Together, a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) blog, mentoring has enormous power to release students’ potential in science.
Mentors can share not only knowledge of their fields of study but also their practical wisdom and experience. They can lead by example and build confidence and self-esteem in students to study and exercise the scientific profession. They can also empower and demonstrate resilience to remain and excel in high-performance environments, such as STEM.
When mentors are peers with similar experiences or contexts as the people they guide, it maximizes the benefits of didactic interactions. Few things empower and bestow more confidence than seeing similar people in leadership positions sharing insights of their professional trajectory and accompaniment. This principle will be the axis of the webinar conversation led by María Ileana Ruiz Cantisani and Silvia García de Cajén.
The credentials of both academicians make them ideal to fully explain how effective mentoring positively affects the academic and future work of women in STEM. María Ruiz Cantisani has a Ph.D. in Educational Innovation, a Master’s of Science degree, and a specialty in Quality Systems. She is director of Liaison and Training Partners of the National School of Engineering and Sciences and a member of Women Engineers in Engineering and Sciences. She served in the national leadership of the Mentor Committee from 2019 to 2021 and currently participates in the Latin American Open Chair Matilda and Women in Engineering, among other mentoring and research committees.
Silvia García de Cajén completed her Ph.D. at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. She has two engineering degrees, Electromechanical and Industrial. She specializes in Teaching Experimental Sciences. Sylvia is a full professor and researcher at the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Central Buenos Aires. She also directs a MID group of Educational Research for the Insertion of Women in STEM and coordinates the Research Committee of the Latin American Open Chair Matilda and Women in Engineering.
If you are interested in the subject of education and research in STEM or if you believe that there is a gender gap in this area and you would like to know different ways to encourage a greater presence of women in these studies, do not miss our next webinar this Tuesday, March 29 at 16:00 CDMX. The broadcast will be in Spanish, but if you are English-speaking and want to know more about mentoring, other teaching styles, and women in STEM careers, we share the EDUTRENDS report about mentoring, links referencing the low feminine population in these areas of study, and how to start balancing the scales.
Translation by Daniel Wetta
){kind=icon}
){kind=icon}
This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
)