From the earliest research, mentoring has been seen as crucial to the success of increasingly diverse workers. Kram’s seminal mentoring theory was published as organizations responded to the changes that resulted from the Civil Rights Movement, when women’s labor force participation rapidly increased and workplaces were increasingly racially integrated. Since the 1980s, the nature of work and structure of organizations have continued to shift in response to globalization and technological advances. Now more than ever, workers’ careers are fluid and self-directed, and no longer characterized by a linear progression through a single organizational hierarchy. Given these changes, mentoring may be increasingly important for workers who are tasked with engaging in continuous career development and learning and may change organizations numerous times over the course of their career. 
Paralleling these changes to the nature of careers are continued changes in the composition of the workforce, as women and minorities now are able to reach more highly-ranked positions, though disparities remain. While initial considerations of mentor/protégé relationships could assume that many mentors would be white men, this is no longer a safe assumption, and adds complexity when considering the composition of mentoring relationships. Given the scope of this assignment, I will focus specifically on gender and mentoring. I will first introduce key terms and concepts in the mentoring literature and provide an overview of meta-analytic findings regarding the antecedents and outcomes of mentoring relationships. I will then review theory related to diversified mentoring with a specific emphasis on gender, considering how outcomes differ for men and women and how different dyadic compositions affect the mentoring process. Finally, based on theory and evidence drawn from established formal mentoring programs, I will make several practical recommendations for an organization hoping to facilitate optimal mentoring relationships.
	Mentoring is typically defined as a one-on-one developmental relationship between a higher-status or more experienced mentor and a less experienced protégé, though the definition has been expanded to include same-status peer relationships and other derivations. Meta-analytic evidence has demonstrated numerous benefits of being mentored for both objective and subjective career outcomes. In their comparison of mentored and non-mentored individuals, Allen and colleagues found that those who are mentored have greater objective career success, indicated by higher compensation and more promotions, as well as greater subjective success in terms of career satisfaction, expectations for advancement, career commitment, job satisfaction, and intentions to stay. Another interdisciplinary meta-analysis of the outcomes associated with being mentored found that receipt of mentoring had a weak positive relationship with workplace performance, and a moderate correlation with workplace helping behaviors. The relationship with workplace attitudinal measures (satisfaction and attachment, considered together) was slightly more modest than that found by Allen and colleagues, perhaps because it aggregated multiple attitudinal outcomes. In addition to the benefits afforded to protégés, meta-analysis has shown that those who are mentors, compared to those who are not, have higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment. These relationships, however, are moderated by the type of mentoring (psychosocial vs. career support) for both protégés and mentors.
