Patricia Gottlieb Shapiro

Women, Mentors and Success

Women have made enormous strides in the past three decades, but equality in the workplace is still elusive when it comes to saleries, promotion into the higher echelons of management, and overall success. One reason is that women have been denied access to a fundamental business or professional relationship, that of mentor or protege, in which a young (usually male) professional is taken under the wing of an older one who serves as his role model, teaches him the right moves, helps formulate goals, and generally opens the doors for advancement.

Mentoring works for women, too, and this provocative book is the first serious study of the unique and specific ways in which mentoring can shape a woman's career. Joan Jeruchim and Pat Shapiro interviewed more than a hundred sucessful women, and the mentors, male and female, who helped them rise. The result is a facinating series of portraits of the mentor-protege relationship, with all its perils and promise.