What are some common challenges and best practices for mentoring women and minorities in STEM fields?

Understanding the context at the outset is critical. People tend to view mentoring very narrowly. It's more than a one-on-one relationship within your organization and only about overall career direction. Once you get clear about the direction a mentee wants to go, then you can find the right mentors (yes, plural). I have my Career Clarity system that I take clients and audiences through to quickly get them thinking forward in their careers so they can put the power of mentoring to work for themselves and their organizations. A couple of exercises illuminate a direction and give them Clarity.

This is an unpopular sentiment, but STEM can evolve so quickly that mentorship can do more harm than good if methods and technological capacity is not up to date. We want to equip emerging STEM talent with innovative and future-focused tools. This isn’t just software and hardware—it’s also inclusive communication, justice-informed advice, equitable feedback, and attention to the power dynamics that influence mentor relationships. Even well-intentioned mentoring can do more harm than good if it’s full of micro-aggressions.

Having a mentor that has shared experiences and understands the context can significantly impact the ability for the mentee to feel well supported. When it comes to mentoring women and minorities, offering mentorship from others that have gotten into the roles the mentees strive for, that are also from minority backgrounds can have an immensely positive impact. Seeing someone that looks like you and sounds like you in a role you want, supports you in feeling that it is possible for you to get there too!

One thing I have found helpful for a mentor is being an active listener. Do not listen to respond, unless asked. Listen to understand. I somehow disagree with sharing stories. Most of the time, the mentor has more experience in a specific field. It then ends up being about the mentor and in most cases overwhelms the mentee who then ceases sharing. It’s not a competition as to who has done more or has been exposed to more, especially when it comes to minority pairs. Bottom line, listen more than you talk as a mentee. Know the difference between mentoring and coaching.

This is great. It can however lead to mentor burn out- yes, that is real. The mentor has to be careful to not become a Counsellor or therapist. Create boundaries even as you offer support.

One of the ways to do this is to ask good questions. Mentoring isn’t about providing the answers. It’s about paying attention and asking the questions that will allow your mentee to find their own answers and move forward from there. Ask questions that generate short-term and long-term thinking from your mentee. You can ask about goals, strengths, weaknesses, challenges, interests, and passions. Your mentee's answers are what will move them forward.

Mentoring should be looked at holistically as well. It is a manifestation of a company's stewardship of people. Employees are an essential part of any business, and it is important to ensure that they are treated with respect, are given the opportunity to grow and succeed, and are given a safe and supportive workplace environment where their careers can flourish. Companies that commit to and demonstrate good stewardship of their people are able to attract and retain great employees, improve morale, and create a positive culture of collaboration. Additionally, good stewardship of people contributes to a good reputation, as well as improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately adding up to the success of the company.

Create opportunities and actively pursue, recruit minorities. Take responsibility not by metrics. Make the programs attractive and advantageous. Diversity and Inclusion programs are smoke screens. Search us out like universities search for minority talent. In the case for sports it is a priority and necessity. Minorities support every major college sports program. A sports program will go to the smallest village in the world to recruit a prospect. Businesses should do the same.

The expression “minorities” is not helpful or inclusive. As a D&I professional, I avoid it because it solidifies the idea that this is an “extra effort for just a very small group of people”. We can use “minoritised” or “marginalised” instead. With those words we evoke the understanding that there has been active work to make certain groups of people in certain environments smaller, pushed to the margins - which acknowledges the realities of an oppressive system.

I like the article and it covered the many key points in dealing with mentoring. It is also important to get to know each other as people . As I have mentored many people in job search my first role is to get to know each and it provides the insight on how I can help them succeed

Mentoring is great, but those from minoritised groups are often over-mentored and under sponsored, they need someone to wear their t-shirt and advocate for them in the rooms that they don't have access to.