Dive Brief:

• Some employers today are turning to "reverse mentoring" strategies to help shift outdated sexist attitudes, according to Quartz. It cites consulting firm EY as one such company trying to update its culture through reverse mentoring, based on a report from The Times of London.

• At EY's London office, for example, director Sayeh Ghanbari, 35, has been mentoring managing partner Adrian Edwards for the past five year, focusing on gender issues, according to the Times.

• According to Quartz, reverse mentoring involves younger employees mentoring senior managers, and actually began in the 1990s when former GE CEO Jack Welch used it to help his older employees understand this new thing called the internet. Employers are now using reverse mentoring to help shift outdated sexist attitudes, according to Quartz.

Dive Insight:

One expert, Corinne Mills, managing director of Personal Career Management, told Quartz that a reversed power dynamic is “quite a tricky task.” She added that employers should also work to address prejudice with coaching and performance targets.

Reverse mentoring backer Alexa Scordato, director of product marketing at Stack Overflow, told Quartz that unless a company actively promotes diversity, reverse mentoring's impact will be minimal. “Some of the most progressive companies don’t have reverse-mentorship programs. They simply embrace the idea that learning happens at all levels and that any employee, regardless of age, brings something special to the table,” she told Quartz.