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Thriving in Academe
Best Practices

Colleagues Share Effective Strategies for Mentoring Female Students

• Michael Zryd, Assistant Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada: "With undergrads, I tend to be more studiously gender-blind by modeling non-discriminatory behavior. With female graduate students who are novice TAs, I try to prepare them for dealing with the 'wolf pack' of male undergrads who constitute the bulk of their student body."
• Cynthia O'Dell, Associate Professor, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN: "Mentoring female artists means letting them know that they are not alone. I tell them I faced the same issues when I was an undergraduate: that I, too, struggled to be confident and strong. Seeing me exhibit my work regularly and witnessing me stand up for myself in front of my male colleagues are some of the most valuable teaching tools at my disposal."
• Alexandra Juhasz, Professor, Pitzer College, Claremont, California: "Encountering through a mentor the simple possibility of inventing one's life as a woman, in the name of things beautiful, political, personal, or ethical can be life-changing. While the media instructs women about all the demeaned and petty ways we might be—a feminist media mentor models what else the media, and women, can be."

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