Role models: inspiration or anathema?
Ruth Wilson
Saturday, 25 April 2009 08:08 UTC
At our national conference last month we gave everyone a hand-held voting device. Someone put up the question ‘Do you think we run the risk of role models being too elite and high-powered to be truly inspirational?’ and this is how the voting went (about 240 people):
Yes: 60%
No: 40%
So I wondered, do NN members/readers agree? Who is your role model? Or are you role-model-free? Do role models have to be high-achievers? What’s best – someone remote (perhaps unaware you exist) or someone close to home (or work)? Can a bad role model be a good thing? Do we need more women role models in science, engineering, technology? Who do you suggest?
(Since the vote, I’ve heard Germaine Greer on Radio 4 say role models prevent originality. She said she has gone out of her way to not be a role model.)
(More on our conference)
Updated 25 April 2009 19:28 UTC
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I find my own role models rather intimidating I have to admit. Sir John Maddox is one. His wife, Brenda, is another – an amazing woman! A few years ago I had a minor operation on my feet. The consultant surgeon was very successful professionally and also has four young children – she was energetic, attractive, elegant and, oh, generally so admirable – leaving me feeling inadequate in about six different departments, if not more.
However, I am glad that these people exist and I love to meet them, read or hear about them. They give me hope, even though I could not myself ever aspire to their achievements.
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We do seem to use role models in part to feel inadequate!!! I read some research (which I can’t find right now) which said that the first impact of a high achieving role model on women is feelings of inadequacy (do men do this???), but in the longer run there is a real benefit in having women visibly achieving and it does help others progress in their careers/lives.
My main role model has been my older brother – it took me years to realise this, and its a bit of mixed blessing, but he is very inspiring. At work I meet women all the time who impress me – including lots of women who think they are unimpressive. By the way, I watch your engagement with Nature with admiration Maxine. Thanks for commenting here.
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Some great photos of STEMNET Ambassadors: http://www.stemnet.org.uk/home.cfm
A new photo exhibition opening in Manchester, 1 May 2009, then touring. -
I don’t have any real role models, mostly as I’ve never been able to identify anyone who I find both inspirational and relevant! Is this as result of the lack of visibility of engineering role models?
The role model candidates who are made available, are those high-achievers who reach the public eye. Hence the all to easy reaction of ‘Well done, good for you, but I could never do that’!
Personally I feel that a mentor would be of more value; someone to act as a catalyst to personal development.
I am not sure what is meant by ‘bad role model’, but as learning from one’s mistakes is just as valid as learning from success, surely the same applies to role models. Being able to learn of the mistakes made by others and the success achieved in spite of those mistakes could be inspiring.
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I do not have a role model, but in my life, so many times I am inspired or impressed by people around me whenever I observed them carefully at times.
I feel that many great things happen in silent ways and nobody even notices. Even a seemingly simplest person may surprise with a strength and an ability to do difficult things at times and the person may not even care for any attention—that is again greater.
There may be many great people in past and in present, who are greater than so-called great in the world, but never got noticed as much. Even a seemingly failed one may have greater strength and abilities than a seemingly successful one, when the failure and success are again blended with luck or possibilities.
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My role models are Sun Tzu (The Art of War), Machiavelli (The Prince), George Washington and Napoleon. I have had a copy of The Prince at my side since I was in the 6th Form. I do not have modern role models. I have never sought one. I have got through life with many friends and ploughing my own furrow. My maxim has often been, ‘Look how many fools can do that. You can do it better than them. Watch THIS!’ Onwards and upwards!
HELEN -
Lois: there is a lack of women engineers, and engineers in general seem to be lower profile than scientists. Is that because they don’t have the breakthroughs that make it into the media? Moving on to high achievinig women scientists etc in general, I think that it may help them if they have external profile and admiration. If they are the only woman at the top table, perhaps it strengthens their position.
Krushna: I agree! I am often impressed by friends who just keep trying for things and don’t give up – they nearly always get somewhere. Sometimes people I know surprise me by doing something remarkable – it may be big or small, but it breaks my preconceived idea of them. I find this very inspiring when it happens, and a real reminder to try not to label in this way.
Helen: wow! What is your furrow Helen? I expect to be seeing you in the headlines soon! :-)
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I was recently helping my partner write a role model profile of himself. His job is very interesting and he is young, so was selected by one of the numerous STEM promotional organisations to become a ‘role-model’. We both agreed that these role models often put forward a very intimidating image of themselves and their jobs, with their excessive ambitiousness and impossibly long list of responsibilities and achievements.
I think someone who lacks confidence will be put off, as I was when I first started studying engineering. I felt more alone, not because I was a woman studying to become an engineer, but because I was a woman studying engineering and not being obsessive about it.
In the end, me and my partner decided to deliberately add some warmth to his profile. We made his job seem attainable (with plenty of hard work, of course) and the day-to-day work seem, as it actually is, challenging but within a supportive environment i.e. teamwork.
Personally I am role-model-free. I take inspiration from different sources as it suits me. I feel that using these examples of high achievers as industry promotion tools is a very lazy method, very passive.
Having said that, I do sometimes find it interesting to read the following:
Interesting what Greer says about role models preventing originality – perhaps she assumes that we see role-models to be copied regardless of our own individual persuasions. And if she has gone out of her way to deliberately be anti-role-model, then she is subscribing to her own predicament. How can she truly be herself when assigned to the task of anti-role-model?
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I see role models as people who are the next one or two steps on to where someone wants to be – or maybe on the same level but doing something in a different way. When we used to run school girl engineering days, we invited role models who were studying at University or early in their career – that way the girls could see what the possibilities were for their next step. For example, on this website (http://www.jtltraining.com/video.php?videoid=48) young female apprentices talk about their jobs – for other young women who are thinking about doing something like this, I imagine it would feel attainable. I have been to a couple of networking events for my own personal use and have met other people who I have been inspired by and they have been more or less at the same level as me – just doing things in a different way. I suppose this could be called peer role modelling! – are they mentors? I don’t look up to high flyers as role models – because for me they are just ‘on another planet’ – unreachable. I don’t have a role model – or perhaps I’ve got lots but I have just never thought of them as being role models. So if we want to encourage more girls into SET careers, we can do our bit to promote realistic role models.
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This is an interesting article: Constructing a professional identify: how young female managers use role models by Val Singh, Susan Vinnicombe and Kim James of Cranfield School of Management (2006).
Its very interesting on things like close and distant role models and identifying with diverse qualities across different individuals rather than having one idealised model. It says that the interviewees reported learning from good managers, but also they learnt ‘how not to do it’ from negative role models. There’s more, but this comment (which refers to a Canadian public sector study of 1,579 senior managers) struck me. The researchers found:
“… that female subordinates had no problems in accepting superiors of either sex as role models. In contrast, they found that male subordinates did not see their female superiors as role models” (The critical factor for acceptance of a role model by both sexes was whether the subordinate perceived the superior to be successful or not.)
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