Mind the Gap of Leadership: the Gender Mentoring Program of the Building Engineering School

Abstract

In order to enhance women's leadership, a Gender Mentoring Program (GMP) was implemented at the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Edificacion (ETSEM) from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), during the academic year 2014-2015. This paper evaluates the GMP experience highlighting the advantages and barriers found during its implementation and giving remedial actions for the following years. The analysis carried out was mainly performed using the questionnaires answered in the sessions and the satisfaction surveys completed by all participants regarding different aspects of the GMP. Results show a high dropout rate as only 50% of the mentees completed the GMP and attended to all the sessions. 100% of them considered that the support given by the mentors was the most valued item of the Program. Moreover, 36% of mentees were very satisfied with the knowledge and the leadership experience gained, and 41% would recommend participating in the GMP. In general, the overall assessment of the Mentoring is very positive since 100% of respondents rated it above 4 (out of 5). Finally, giving ECTS credits to the mentees and reducing the duration of the program finishing all the training sessions in September and therefore avoiding the exams period in December-, are some of the remedial actions planned to be implemented next course in order to keep up students' participation and decrease their dropout rate.