Inova Consultancy hosted the event “Mentor Yourself and Others to Boost Opportunities in STEAM” on 27th September 2021, which brought together 24 highly skilled women facing similar challenges, such as imposter syndrome. With a focus on mentoring and networking, the women were given the opportunity to share their stories and practice coaching one another.
The event began with a presentation of the MentoraSTEAM project’s objectives and research activities, with a focus on the Policy Framework Guide. The women were then presented with some statistics about the situation of women in STEAM. Concepts such as the leaky pipeline were introduced, and according to the UNESCO Science Report towards 2030, it was revealed the global share of women in research compared to the number of female PHD graduates dropped by 34.8% in 2013. With many of the women relating to the concept of imposter syndrome, which can often hinder people from applying for jobs they would excel in, or perhaps from entering research, the importance of talking about these issues and sharing one another’s experiences became apparent. After a short workshop on mentoring tools and techniques, including the GROW model, the women carried out their own mentoring conversations with one another. Below you can find some of the main takeaways from the event which were collected through the collaborative app, Mentimeter:
