How many brilliant minds have been lost from engineering and other STEM disciplines because those disciplines didn’t create spaces for them?
In a year-long study looking at the value of mentorship showed that female engineering undergraduates who are paired with a female mentor felt more motivated. They also felt a further sense of self assurance and a decrease in anxiety. They were less likely to drop out of their classes and felt more confident in engineering as a career choice post graduation. Those who had male mentors, they had the opposite results.
Good mentors inoculate the mind against common negative stereotypes. “And this study isn’t just about women,” says Radhika Nagpal, from Harvard University. “It’s about all the groups who have been historically and legally excluded, and are now slowly entering a world from which their members were barred. There’s a famous saying: You can’t be what you can’t see.”
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STEM, The Fastener Museum
