by Lynn Barendsen
The recent announcement of the Nobel Laureates in Medicine point to another achievement that deserves recognition: outstanding mentorship. Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider were members of a scientific “lineage” with Joseph Gall at its head. Blackburn studied under Gall; Greider studied under Blackburn. Two very successful women in a field that has been dominated by men, in a field in which mentoring does not typically come first.
In the New York Times interview after the announcement of the award, Greider was asked about the nature of her research with Blackburn, and whether the type of research (on telomeres) was in itself particularly attractive to women. In her response, she specifically credits Gall’s mentorship efforts:
“There’s nothing about the topic that attracts women. It’s probably more the founder effect. Women researchers were fostered early on by Joe Gall, and they got jobs around the country and they trained other women. I think there’s a slight bias of women to work for women because there’s still a slight cultural bias for men to help men. The derogatory term is the “old boys network.” It’s not that they are biased against women or want to hurt them. They just don’t think of them. And they often feel more comfortable promoting their male colleagues.”
In the world of science, especially post-doctoral work, the relationship between students and teachers may be fraught with tension. Unlike other fields (journalism, business, theater, for example), in science students DO have mentors – they are assigned to someone and that relationship may be complicated. We heard quite about this during our GoodWork research. The years post-docs spend working in labs often result in frustration, and this is sometimes the result of a poor relationship with an advisor. One version of this advisor/advisee relationship is as follows:
“I know in an ideal setting it would be true that your advisors would have ways of talking to students and post-docs that separates science from the individual, but it just doesn’t happen in the real world. And I think that part of that is that the people who become advisors are selected because they are great scientists, not because they are managers or not because they have well-developed interpersonal skills. So, you get these people who have spent their whole life at a bench and all of the sudden, they’re in charge of fifteen people. Where were they supposed to learn?”
Considered within this context, the achievements of Gall, Blackburn and Greider are even more remarkable.
We’ve learned a lot about mentors on the GoodWork Project. We’ve learned that most often, people, especially young people, don’t have mentors. When we asked them to talk about mentors, instead we heard about “antimentors” – people who came to exemplify qualities they themselves didn’t want to develop. And worse, some told us about “tormentors”. Our colleagues on the GoodPlay Project have found that young people lament the lack of mentors who are able to help them navigate cyberspace. Young people are digital natives, while the older generation, who may have some wisdom with respect to ethical issues, are “immigrants.”
Resourceful individuals develop a practice of “fragmentoring” – or piecing together qualities and lessons learned from various different people in their lives. Mom teaches a lesson about finishing what you started; Coach Andy hammers home a message about follow through; a drama teacher invites you to push your limits, and an unfailingly honest friend inspires you to tell the truth even when difficult. Even individuals who lack bits of positive exemplary behavior find other means – for example, emulating the work of inspirational public figures. In short, what’s involved in finding a mentor is changing, what it means to be a mentor is evolving. It’s a lot harder to do this mentoring work on your own, however, and it takes tremendous determination and focus.
Who we allow to have influence over our choices, our beliefs and our lives is no small decision. It is not always a conscious one, but clearly it ought to be. Following the examples set by these outstanding scientists is a good place to start.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/13conv.html?hpw