ABSTRACT
This chapter examines one small but highly effective mentoring program that has focused on fortifying feminists and has thus helped create and sustain change among people, processes, and paradigms. It provides a detailed description of particular mentoring program known by the curious name of Nag's Heart in which mentoring circles are formed and run according to a strict protocol. The chapter presents evidence on effectiveness of Nag's Heart using data from a recent study of women in the academic fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Alternative mentoring models have flourished, including inter-organizational mentoring, peer mentoring, mentoring networks, and group mentoring. Peer mentoring models address the concerns of power differentials in traditional mentoring relationships, and are considered especially useful to help women combat under-representation, isolation, and lack of support in STEM fields and careers. Nag's Heart retreats embody the essential elements of status attenuation, mutual support and trust, and network enhancement found in peer mentoring models and mentoring circles.
