Paying it Forward in the Legal Academy

In recent years, a number of senior colleagues - who I won't name here for fear of embarrassing them - have helped me out in the professional context by both agreeing to serve as references for hiring, promotion, tenure, fellowships etc, and by making the time to give helpful career advice.  Often when I have asked how to thank them, they have told me to "pay it forward":  in other words, it's part of the job.  They help me, and I help the next junior person who comes along seeking career support or advice.  So I must say that I'm both extremely grateful to all the people who have helped me over the years, and I've tried my best to pay it forward not just because they told me to, but because it's obviously the right thing to do regardless of whether anyone has helped you or not.

But I've recently noticed one interesting phenomenon about the "pay it forward" mentality.  It just so happens that all the people who have specifically asked me to pay it forward have been women.  I wonder if this is just coincidence, or if there is something in it?  Is it possible that there is a gender difference in attitudes to mentoring?  Perhaps men tend to work more in a buddy system eg you help me and I help you, and women tend to work more inter-generationally in this context?  I know this seems a little far-fetched, but I'd be interested if anyone has any thoughts or experiences they want to share along these lines.

Comments

[Matt]

I can't say anything about gender-based generalizations, but I know that many legal academics, some quite well known and some less well known but still, I'm sure, busy with their own projects, have been extremely generous to me with their time, help, and advice, despite the fact that I'm in no position to do anything to help them and unlikely to be in such a position. Many (but by no means all) of these people have been male. No one has specifically told me to in turn help out others, but their model certainly tells in favor of doing so.

[Jacqui L.]

And of course I wasn't meaning to imply that senior male colleagues have not been extremely helpful to me in the past with no expectation that I could do anything particularly helpful or supportive for them - I just noticed recently that the only people who have made a particular point of saying "pay it forward" are women. It probably doesn't mean anything at all, but I just thought it was interesting.

[TJ]

Way back when, I thanked my (male) professor for writing a recommendation for law school. The response I got was, basically, pay it forward. I don't know whether there is any gender disparity, but certainly a good number of men share the mentality you describe. Indeed, the legal academy almost has to function this way. Most of the people in a position to mentor are either tenured professors or tenured judges--there is really not much further up for them to go, and their proteges are unlikely to be in much of a position to help them in any case. The protege can provide flattering quotes to the media if the mentor ever comes up for Senate confirmation, and that is about it.

[anxious]

I am a woman just entering academia, and I have been fortunate to have receiving some very excellent and generous mentoring by a couple of male professors in my field. While I was in practice, however, my mentors were pretty much exclusively women - I am not sure what exactly accounts for this difference, other than the fact that the preeminent tenured faculty in my field are men, while the practitioners are by and large women.