Changing patriarchal structures of mentorship programmes

Jana Makar¹, Megan Guidry¹, Aidan Muirhead², Adam Huttner-Koros², Kerri Wait³, Aditi Subramanya⁴, Marco de la Pierre⁴, Loretta Davis⁵

¹New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI), New Zealand
²National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), Australia
³Monash eResearch Centre, Monash University, Australia
⁴Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, Australia
⁵Australasian eResearch Organisations (AeRO), Australia

Background

A recent article in The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/why-mentoring-for-women-risks-propping-up-patriarchal-structures-instead-of-changing-them-157965) showed that many women-only mentoring programs often perpetuate the gendered hierarchies they attempt to remove. Through mentoring, women who have succeeded on male terms are setting other women on the same path. The article concluded with: “Approaches to mentoring need to change so they can really change things for women in universities and beyond. If they don’t…we can expect gender bias will continue.” So, what can we do to create that change?

Method

In this Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) session, we will discuss how to recognise patriarchal structures in modern-day mentoring programmes and what could be done to change them.

Results

Participants will have an opportunity to share experiences and a guidelines / recommendations document will be produced as a resource that participants can take to their organisations.

Conclusion

This BoF will provide a valuable opportunity to continue to grow and connect members of the WHPCAusNZ community, and to discuss actions to move the WHPC and eResearch field towards a more inclusive and equitable environment.

Biography:

Bio to come…