Women's Motivation to Mentor Young Women Students in STEM Areas: A Study Case in Mexico

One characteristic of recent decades is the growing awareness of education's importance as a force of change in our countries, the gaps in gender equality, and the lesser presence of women in STEM areas. Mentoring programs have stood out among the initiatives to close these gaps for their impact and continuous presence, both formally and informally. This research aimed to identify why a woman professor/ researcher or undergraduate student becomes a mentor to identify an ideal mentor profile for female students interested in STEM areas. The qualitative methodology of this study had three stages: (1) Design of the study to identify the motives, (2) Definition of the qualitative instruments and the sample of women mentors, and (3) Analysis of the data and conclusions. The findings of why a woman professor, researcher, or undergraduate student becomes a mentor are: (a) empathy for the mentee's life and experiences in comparison to what she lived at her age, (b) desire to share the passion for her discipline and her experiences as a woman in the professional field, (c) motivation to foster resilience in women in STEM areas, (d) desire to transcend her life by impacting other lives, (e) the yearning to contribute and give back what she has received, (f) the need to make the gender gap visible and improve the current conditions of the countries where the mentors live, among other reasons.)