"It's fine if programs like Radcliffe Research Partnership team up women, but it doesn't have to be that way," Holbrook says. "There are just more men scientists out there."

Jennifer M. Kalish '98, a physics and chemistry concentrator who is currently working with Professor of Physics Mara Prentiss, says the question of male versus female mentoring rests with individual students.

"There's no yes or no answer," says Kalish of whether male or female mentors are a better match for female students. "It may not be a gender issue."

Setting Out on Their Own

Wilson, who has participated in the Radcliffe Mentor Program as a mentor for several years, says structured programs make it easier for both students and senior mentor partners to define their relationship in order for the student to gain maximum benefit.

"These programs are good because what you can expect is laid out," Wilson says of mentorships at Radcliffe.

"That's different from a student approaching a Faculty member with neither of them having a map."

However, many students seek out their own mentors, most notably those researching thesis topics and searching for advisers.

"We do have a very structured relationship," says Kalish of Prentiss. Kalish says mentorship programs are helpful, but that a similar mentoring structure can be achieved outside of the established framework.

"A road map is great if you can't find someone in your department, or even if you can," she says.

"There are different avenues to get to the same mentor relationship. The more ways you can facilitate that relationship, the better."

Rita J. Maxwell '98 sees her relationship with her thesis adviser, Professor of History Susan G. Pedersen, as more defined by a "good working dynamic" than by gender role modeling. She says her choice of Pedersen was colored primarily by her preference for an adviser with experience in her area of interest--British history--who she could work well with.

"I can't really say if she could have been interchangeable with a male Faculty member," Maxwell says. "What I like about her is her general personality and her work style. That is essentially why I chose to work with her."

As March notes, often the choice of mentor boils down to finding a female Faculty member, alumna or fellow willing to open both her heart and her home to a student who may enter the program with a purely professional interest.

Such one-on-one mentoring may not only help to foster a comfortable College atmosphere, as March notes, but it may also be essential to women's learning at the College.