5 ms·

When It’s Hard for Women to Find Male Mentors

14 points by grrrtttt 9y ago

jimmywanger 9y ago
I find it ironic that because men are wary because of sexual discrimination _laws_, the solution proposed is to pass more _laws_. In the article, there is a direct quote from the person being interviewed. "If they only do things with people of the same sex, that is discrimination." Maybe your wife/gf is really jealous and you'd prefer not to walk into that minefield. This article is proposing more regulations to solve a problem that was caused by legislation to begin with.
- OhSoHumble 9y ago
  This is actually something that has happened to me before. A female coworker came to me asking if I could help her learn some skills that would advance her career. I agreed to teach her and she ended up making romantic advancements toward me. I immediately told my significant other what was happening and started working towards resolving the issue. The incident made me fairly wary.
  - jimmywanger 9y ago
    Agreed. I had a free ticket to a comedy show, and I wanted to give it away without it going to waste - I had to think very hard and carefully about if I wanted to offer it to a female coworker on short notice. The comedian in question did some rather blue jokes, and that could possibly be construed as harassment. It's a shame you can't just offer tickets to coworkers of the opposite sex without worrying about consequences.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
tjalfi 9y ago
The cited paper The Glass Partition: Obstacles to Cross-Sex Friendships at Work is available at [0]. [0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255597459_The_glass_partition_Obstacles_to_cross-sex_friendships_at_work https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255597459_The_glass...
fegu 9y ago
While we are all individuals there are still some traits more common to one sex than the other. It seems women more often than men become attracted to a teacher/mentor/supervisor. Ask any diving instructor for instance. This makes cross sex mentoring where the man is the mentor a minefield.

14 points by grrrtttt 9y ago

I find it ironic that because men are wary because of sexual discrimination _laws_, the solution proposed is to pass more _laws_. In the article, there is a direct quote from the person being interviewed. "If they only do things with people of the same sex, that is discrimination." Maybe your wife/gf is really jealous and you'd prefer not to walk into that minefield. This article is proposing more regulations to solve a problem that was caused by legislation to begin with.

OhSoHumble 9y ago
This is actually something that has happened to me before. A female coworker came to me asking if I could help her learn some skills that would advance her career. I agreed to teach her and she ended up making romantic advancements toward me. I immediately told my significant other what was happening and started working towards resolving the issue. The incident made me fairly wary.
- jimmywanger 9y ago
  Agreed. I had a free ticket to a comedy show, and I wanted to give it away without it going to waste - I had to think very hard and carefully about if I wanted to offer it to a female coworker on short notice. The comedian in question did some rather blue jokes, and that could possibly be construed as harassment. It's a shame you can't just offer tickets to coworkers of the opposite sex without worrying about consequences.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

tjalfi 9y ago

The cited paper The Glass Partition: Obstacles to Cross-Sex Friendships at Work is available at [0]. [0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255597459_The_glass_partition_Obstacles_to_cross-sex_friendships_at_work https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255597459_The_glass...

fegu 9y ago

While we are all individuals there are still some traits more common to one sex than the other. It seems women more often than men become attracted to a teacher/mentor/supervisor. Ask any diving instructor for instance. This makes cross sex mentoring where the man is the mentor a minefield.