4 ways male mentors can improve for their female mentees

1. Men often harbour stereotypes about women’s capacities

“Men are socialised to see women as delicate, mysterious and less capable and resilient in the face of challenge. When implicit biases about female fragility lurk in the unconscious, men tend to underestimate women’s ability to tolerate stress and respond to challenge.”

2. Men enact social scripts for relationships with women that stem from their own socialisation around gender

“These ‘manscripts’ are familiar to most people — father-daughter, chivalrous knight-damsel in distress — and, in many situations, may be helpful in reducing male anxiety about how to interact with women they care for at work.