In this article: Addressing the issue | Mentorship experiences in the theology department| Mentorship experiences in the sciences | Mentorship in other departments
When she goes to the Mind & Hearth, senior Kelsey Thurman said she generally observes a male professor talking with a student who is usually male.
Thurman is not alone in this sentiment. Other female students express similar concerns about the evidence of male-to-male mentorship on campus and a sense of lacking mentorship for females.
Thurman said she felt the Mancation event illustrated issues of gender on campus.
"I don't want to say it was not a good use of funds or the people who organized it didn't have the best intentions, but it seemed silly to be to spend so much money on an event that only male students could attend and that served a purpose of male mentorship that was already fulfilled," Thurman said.
Thurman said she does not feel like there are many mentor opportunities for female students from both male and female faculty.
The mentorship of females was raised as a specific issue in a 2005 gender study, particularly in regard to how students are encourage to go on to graduate school.
"This is something I look at and care about," said Michael Le Roy, vice president for Academic Affairs.
While women now outnumber men in the numbers going on to graduate programs at Whitworth and nationally, more men are still going on to get their Ph.Ds, said Kathy Storm, vice president for Student Life.
Some people have observed that there seems to be more encouragement for men to attend graduate school and get internships, said Dayna Coleman Jones, assistant dean of students.
"We're good at getting women students into leadership positions, but we need to provide more options for women once they leave," Coleman Jones said. "Women's goals sometimes get put secondary to the men's. I feel like we could do better there."
Coleman Jones said students may even be able to find female mentors easier that female faculty can.
Female faculty members may have more to do, particularly with committee work and being placed as the "female voice" on committees. This can take time away from mentoring students and other faculty members, Thurman said.
Sophomore Emily Linn is currently involved in organizing Feminight, the female response to the all-male retreat called Mancation that occurred for the first time this fall. Feminight is scheduled for May 1.
It seems like men have more opportunities to just be men together, Linn said.
"It seems that guys meet with male faculty more than females meet with female faculty. That is way larger that just a retreat this spring," Linn said.
Linn said she would like to see more mentorship opportunities.
"I would love to see greater women being in community and encouraging each other. It could be staff, faculty or even upperclassmen helping out with the younger girls," Linn said. "I know we have a small group program, but I think we need to have more of a mentorship program."
One of the action steps of Whitworth's 2005-2010 Strategic Plan is to expand faculty and staff involvement in mentoring students.
Janelle Thayer, counseling director, said she thinks mentors for males on campus help students in organizing their life philosophies. For women, she said, it seems to include more about learning how to integrate the various areas of life, including getting into the workforce, managing a career and a future family.
Thayer said the women at Whitworth today seem to be more self-sufficient and they might need to let female faculty and staff know the ways in which we can be helpful to them.
"It doesn't feel like there's a gap. We can help females, but we're not quite sure what they might need or want from us,” Thayer said.
Addressing the issue
Dale Soden, vice president for planning and professor of history, said there have been several different conversations with faculty members as a whole on how faculty believe students are being advised. Soden said gender biases can come out in subtle ways in advising.
"We've had some good discussions about that. Do I honor your choice or do I think you're selling yourself short by trying to be something I think you shouldn't be or do something you shouldn't?" Soden said. "It showed to me that a very important part of faculty culture is in relating to students. We're trying to figure out if you were a guy if I am asking you different questions."
Storm said Whitworth does well at trying to remind faculty and staff to be encouraging of careers and graduate school and not fall into patterns.
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