NEW PERSPECTIVES ON OLD CHESTNUTS Mentoring & Networking

Jackie Connon & Carol Walker (Mentoring)

Anne Stevenson, Mary Brown & Moira Bailey (Networking)19 April 2007

What we hope you will gain from this evening:

• Recognise the personal & organisational benefits of mentoring & networking

• Understand the gender issues associated with mentoring & networking

• Implement effective mentoring and networking initiatives within your organisation

Just over 30 years ago, in 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act was passed and the Equal Pay Act came into force…

So what has changed?

Who runs Scotland? (EOC, 2007)

Women's average representation in Scotland/UK (2007):

• MSPs - 39% • Public Appointments - 35%• Civil Service Top Management (UK) - 26%• University Vice Chancellors - 23%• Secondary Head Teachers - 21%• Senior Police Officers - 12%• Directors in FTSE Companies (UK) - 11%• Senior Ranks in Armed Forces (UK) - 1% 3

Government Intervention – The Equality Act 2006

Gender Equality Duty – 6 April 2007

All public authorities in England, Wales and Scotland must demonstrate that they are promoting equality for women and men and that they are eliminating sexual discrimination and harassment.

Key Barriers preventing women’s advancement

• Commitment to family• Stereotyping & preconceptions of women’s roles & abilities • Lack of senior, visibly successful female role models• Inhospitable organisational cultures• Exclusion from informal networks of communication

Opportunity Now (2000)

Breaking the Barriers (two key recommendations) • Support professional women’s networks within and

outside your organisation

• Implement a formal mentoring programme and consider both internal and external mentors

Opportunity Now (2000)

Concept of Mentoring

• Relationship between an experienced individual and less experienced individual which can help to develop and achieve career and personal goals

• Can be within a formal or an informal setting

• Often confusion between the concept of mentoring and that of ‘coaching’ and ‘counselling’

Greek Mythology: Mentor and Telemachus

‘Odysseus on his departure to the Trojan war requested that Mentor (his faithful friend) act as a

tutor to his son Telemachus; and as such the concept of mentoring was born,

Formal Mentoring

‘off-line help from one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking’

(David Clutterbuck, 2004, Everyone Needs a Mentor, p. 13)

Examples of Mentoring Support for Women

• Confidence Building• Leadership Development• Self-awareness• Career Development • Networking • Work Life Balance

So how can Formal Mentoring support Gender Equality?

• Opportunities to access influence networks.

• Builds confidence in own abilities

• Improves the understanding and communication between gender groups

• Helps to progress female employees to provide future role models

Setting up a Formal Mentoring Scheme

• Senior Management commitment & support• Internal and/or cross organisational scheme?• Women only or open to all?• Recruiting participants • Assigned versus choice matching?• Training, ongoing support & evaluation• Publicising the scheme and its success