Thoughts on Feminist Mentoring: Experiences of Faculty Members from Two Generations in the Academy

This chapter provides three perspectives on feminist mentoring from two generations of faculty. After a brief review of the traditional mentoring and feminist/multicultural mentoring literatures, Meda Chesney-Lind begins the discussion with some thoughts on survival strategies that she has gleaned from decades of work in the academy. Her reflections on teaching, research, and service in the academy suggest pathways to success for those who study and/or are within the social and academic ‘‘minority’’ (e.g., women and/or people of color). Scott Okamoto then illustrates how he has put some of these reflections into practice. He describes his own experiences and challenges in the academy, having just started a teaching career as a feminist man of color. Finally, Katherine (Katy) Irwin describes her own experiences as a woman faculty member who has also just begun her career. The chapter concludes with some joint reflections on what feminist mentoring has been and what it must become to assure that the academy is a workplace that genuinely permits an increasingly diverse faculty to not only survive but to thrive.