How support between colleagues can foster women academics well-being

While formal support is crucial in the working environment, positive informal contacts are also essential for everyday work satisfaction. This has received wide-spread attention from popular media outlets, with magazines and newspapers dedicating articles to the importance of colleagues for our well-being. All workers benefit from a positive environment, but especially in the context of achieving gender equality, a network of supportive colleagues can create a buffer for negative experiences and boost the career development of women.

Informal relations can both grow naturally because of common interests or background but can also be enhanced by more structural initiatives. Being a compassionate university, VUB engages to create a respectful, open-minded environment in which informal connections can flourish among the different members of its community. This post will highlight two recent initiatives that were developed with the support of the TARGETED-MPI team.

The first is the buddy program that exists at different research groups and for specific groups of employees like PhD students. A new working environment can be overwhelming and complex, therefore a buddy can help a new colleague to navigate within this context and support their integration in the team. While the supervisor (if applicable) and the administrative staff remain the core of this integration process, the threshold to talk to a buddy – who is more equal in status – about doubts or personal issues might be lower. This can help the new colleague to feel at ease and know they’re not alone in the process of getting used to the new environment. Since the PhD group is very diverse and international in its composition, specific attention is given to their arrival and integration.

Alternatively, for more senior colleagues, a mentor is also a possible support system that capitalizes on the benefits of the expertise of more senior colleagues. Mentors are staff members who are already for several years in their position, are used to the academic environment and know how to navigate within it. Consequently, they can share their insights with a less experienced colleague who is still adapting to a new work environment. According to research, this can help the mentee to develop skills, connections and experiences required to accomplish their goals. In the long turn, this can also support faculty retention and individual productivity (Cellini, 2016). However, research shows that women are less inclined to look for a mentor themselves, while men often do it more naturally. This is might be do to gender patterns in the social relations in an organization, that make women less inclined to reach out to other colleagues (Dashper, 2019). A lack of (informal) mentee might hamper the individual trajectory and the social integration of women in academia. Informal support systems like a buddy or mentor can also help women to integrate in the academic environment (Macoun & Miller, 2014). This can have a negative effect on the future earning and employment outcomes of women, two career aspects that are still influenced by the professional and social network. Creating an official or formal mentorship program can thus help to bridge this gap and to also provide the necessary informal support which is indispensable for career development.

Besides creating a more equitable environment for all, positive emotions and social cohesion are also important objectives of the above-mentioned support systems. Because employees feel like they can share their thoughts and challenges, they can feel empowered within their working environment (Holder et al., 2015). This is even more true for groups who face additional struggles within their daily environment due to their demographic or cultural background. Within the academic environment, employees who don’t adhere to the image of the ‘ideal academic’ have to face microaggressions based on their gender or ethnicity. Checking in with mentors and buddies can serve as a coping strategy to deal with (the effects) of microaggressions. Speaking up and talking about an incident with colleagues who respect and support you can validate their presence in the workplace and regulate their feelings related to potentially harmful social interactions (Holder et al., 2015). For marginalized groups specifically, sharing experiences and insights can also be a way to reaffirm and strengthen kinship (Nair & Good, 2021), while also boosting individual self-confidence (Nick et al., 2012; Serwint et al., 2014).