ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the mentoring outcome literature bearing on gender with emphasis on cross-sex mentorship. Following the existing literature, most of this bears on the experiences of women in the academy. The chapter highlights some obstacles to cross-sex mentorship formation, factors that may impede cross-sex mentorships once formed, and then considers some specific mentoring issues and recommendations in work with female mentees in academe. Obstacles to forming cross-sex mentorships include stereotypes, tokenism, and concerns about public scrutiny. Once formed, cross-sex mentorships may also be more negatively affected by traditionally masculine models of mentoring, unsatisfactory role modeling, the emergence of dependency, or the development of romantic or sexual attraction. The chapter discusses mentoring gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) persons-particularly in cross-orientation dyads. It emphasizes the concerns of heterosexual faculty serving as mentors to LGBT mentees.
