Womentor

Europen Federation of Mentors for Girls and Young Women

Partner from Greece:

Greek Women Engineering Association (EDEM)

Panagiota (Betty) Rouni, Mechanical Engineer, PhD

International Affairs’ Responsible

Greek Women Engineering Association (EDEM)

• Established 1995

• Members: Qualified Greek Women Engineers (members of the Technical Chamber of Greece)

• Members ~1500

• Women engineers in Greece ~14000

Greek Women Engineering Association (EDEM)

Aims• Promote the principals and create provisions for equality between

women and men in employment, education and society in general.

• Research into problems concerning women engineers and subsequently seek solutions.

• Co-operate with other organisations (both abroad and in Greece), which are involved in similar issues.

• Improve terms and conditions for women practising engineering as a profession.

• Encourage community awareness on employment opportunities for women and mainly of young women in the traditionally male dominated profession of engineering.

Aims• Develop an information unit to support women engineers

concerning employment opportunities in the labour market, according to specialised qualifications, training and their professional experience. This will be related to training and development programs aimed at enhancing women engineers’ chances of employment.

• Encourage and promote activities of women engineers beyond their professional sphere. These can include: artistic creation, cultural activities and improvement of quality of life in general.

Greek Women Engineering Association (EDEM)

• The General Secretariat for Gender Equality is the governmental agency competent to plan, implement, and monitor the implementation of policies on equality between women and men in all sectors.

• The Research Centre for Gender Equality (KETHI), a Legal Entity under Private Law, was founded in 1994. It conducts social research on gender equality issues and implement actions to improve women’s status and enable their advancement in all areas of political, economic and social life, within the framework of the policies defined by the General Secretariat for Equality. 

Official Greek gender equality agencies

Greek Women Engineering Association (EDEM)

Networks:• WITEC (European Association for Women in

Science, Engineering and Technology)• EPWS (European Platform of Women

Scientists)• PERIKTIONI (Greek network of women

scientists working in Research Centers and Academia)

Greek Women Engineering Association (EDEM)

Recent Projects:1. INDECS - Potentials of Interdisciplinary Degree Courses in Engineering,

Information Technology, Natural and Socio-Economic Sciences in a Changing Society

2. Altener -Women And Renewable Energy Sources

3. PREparing Female students for Academic Entrepreneurship (PREFACE)

4. Creating Cultures of Success for Women Engineers (WOMENG)

5. EQUAL Teleworking

6. Tackling Stereotypes: Maximising the Potential of Women in SET

7. EQUAL- Adoption of mechanisms and programs for life learning from the SME’s – certification of educational parcels and recognition of acquired knowledge in the sectors of applications of information technology and technical professions

Greek Women Engineering Association (EDEM)

Mentoring projects:

• Mellow: Life long Mentoring of Women in and/or towards technical jobs.

• Win: Women in Network

Mentor-Mentee-Mentoring

In Greek mythology, Mentor (Μέντωρ /

Méntτr) was in his old age, a friend of

Odysseus. When Odysseus left for

the Trojan War he placed Mentor in charge of his son, Telemachus,

and of his palace.

Mentor-Mentee-Mentoring

This is the source of the modern use of the word mentor:

A trusted friend, counsellor or teacher, usually a more experienced person.

 Today mentors provide their expertise to less

experienced individuals (mentees) in order to help them advance their careers, enhance their education, and build their networks.

Mellow

• Questionnaire to mentors and mentees

• Matching pairs mentors-mentees

• Meetings mentor-mentee

• Evaluation and comments by mentor-mentee

Win

• International meeting of partners

• Handbook with good practices about mentoring

EDEM’s experience

• Mentors have not only to be successful professionals, they must be willing to devote time to the mentee and enter the way of thinking of young people.

• Mentees have to understand that mentor is not the person to find them a job or solve all their problems.

• Both have to devote time to know each other and the talk sincerely.

• Mentee and mentor will gain self confidence after the meetings and became more conscious of their role in the society.

Mentoring in Greece (1)

• Greek society needs special actions to fight stereotypes and help girls and young women to draw a career according their talents and qualifications

• Mentoring is in the beginning in Greece• Girls and young women do not know where to

find someone to act like a mentor for them• Experienced women in general they are not

conscious about the role they can play in the society

Mentoring in Greece (2)

• Girls and young women do not know where to ask for advice and support

• They cannot find easily an experienced woman in their sector/discipline to address

• They do not know how to take benefit of an experienced woman who wants to act like a mentor for them

• Sometimes they confuse the mentoring process with ‘admitting incapability’:

‘women are tough enough to fight with men’s rules’

Womentor - EDEMActions so far

• Participation at the students (Technical universities students from European countries and Canada) event “On the way to improve the quality in engineering education” in the session Women in Engineering field (Athens, 12-19 May 2008) with presentation ‘Investigation of the causes for the low attraction of female students in the Technical Universities and for the slow development of women in engineering careers’.

• EDEM provide secondary schools with statistics and research results about women in technical studies and professions.

•Womentor workshop in Athens, 24-25 May 2008:

Participants: women students of engineering, university career office, young women engineers, EDEM’s board, government equality officers, Secondary education teachers, experienced women engineers etc.

Womentor - EDEM

Womentor - EDEM

Womentor workshop in Athens, 24-25 May 2008

Conclusions: • Women students and young women professionals need

mentoring to find their way easier and sooner for a career of their choice.

• Mentoring in secondary education could help society to implement equality right to this generation.

• There is need to train women volunteers to act as mentors.• Mentoring projects have to be supported by national

governments, universities and EU.

Future

EDEM wants to:• create a pilot group of mentors and mentees to

act like a cell for the promotion of mentoring process in schools, universities and in occupation.

• create a list of mentors for different professions to address young women when they ask for help/advice.

EDEM will devote the annual women engineering students awarding event to mentoring (in December 2008).