SPOTLIGHTS

Caring responsibilities, whether for children or other family members, such as younger siblings, are still mainly shouldered by women. This has a big impact on their earning potential – limiting the number of hours they can work and their ability to take on higher-paid and more fulfilling work.

Over half of young women with children are worried about balancing work with their caring responsibilities:

• 53% of young single mothers and 52% of young women with joint childcare responsibility are worried about this.

Young women with childcare responsibility are more likely to be affected by job insecurity, discrimination, and a lack of support at work.

Childcare costs are a significant barrier to work for young mothers.

• 14% of young mums have been unable to work as many hours as they'd like to because of the high cost of childcare.
• 13% of young single mums and 9% of young women with joint childcare responsibility have had to put off returning to work because they can't afford childcare.
• Over 1 in 5 (21%) of young women with caring responsibilities said that not being able to get support with their caring responsibilities has made it difficult for them to apply for a job.

Having caring responsibilities is a major reason for young women facing discrimination.

HR decision makers confirmed that young women face discrimination on the grounds of their caring responsibilities or pregnancy.

• More than 1 in 10 (12%) HR decision-makers say they know of young women in their organisation who have been discriminated against for being pregnant, on parental leave or returning to work in the past year.
• The same number are aware of young women being discriminated against for having caring responsibilities.

Caring responsibilities limit young women’s opportunities to progress.

• More than 1 in 10 (12%) of HR decision makers are aware of women missing out on progression opportunities due to childcare commitments.

Even the perception that a young woman might in the future have children, impacts how she is treated by employers, and therefore her earning.

• Almost a fifth (18%) of HR decision makers told us that they would be reluctant to hire a woman who they thought might go on to start a family, compared to 11% who said they would be reluctant to hire a man who they thought might go on to start a family.

Our survey found racially minoritised young women are much more likely to be affected by insecure work, discrimination, and lack of progression opportunities.

They are more than twice as likely as white young women to be worried about discrimination at work:

And rates of ethnicity-based discrimination are rising:

Racially minoritised young women are also more likely to experience discrimination because of their appearance.

• Almost a quarter (24%) of racially minoritised young women have been discriminated against because of their appearance compared to 15% of white young women.

Racially minoritised young women are affected by job insecurity.

And these worries have been growing steadily over the last three years.

And they are more likely to be worried about a lack of progression opportunities, and a lack of support at work.

Young racially minoritised women are also more likely to request flexible working, but less likely than white young women to have their request approved.

The sector young women work in could play a role in this. Racially minoritised young women are (at least according to our survey) more likely to be working in retail and social care – both sectors in which flexible working options tend to be more limited.

Young women with long-term physical and mental health conditions are reporting more barriers to getting into work and are less likely to be thriving that other young women.

According to our survey, disabled young women have a harder time finding a suitable job opportunity in the first place:

In part, this could be down to a lack of flexibility.

• 35% of young women with a long-term physical health condition told us that a lack of flexibility has made it difficult to apply for a job, compared to 30% of all young women.

Once at work, worryingly, these young women don’t feel as safe at work as other young women:

And young women with physical health conditions are more worried about their progression prospects:

• 60% of young women with a long-term physical health condition are worried about not having enough opportunities to progress, compared to 52% of all young women.

Young women with long-term health conditions are also more likely to be in the precarious situation of having no employment contract, and to have been asked to work for no pay.

Discrimination on the grounds of disability or mental health problem is still scarring these young women’s working lives.

Mental health is still a particular cause for unfair treatment. More than a third of young women with mental health problems have faced discrimination at work or when looking for work – and this seems to be rising.

Compounding the problem, young women with mental health problems are less likely to know their rights and to feel comfortable challenging discrimination.

Perhaps as a result of the additional challenges they face at work, and the knock-on impact on their finances, disabled young women’s quality of life has got worse:

We welcome the government’s proposal to require employers to report on disability, as well as gender and ethnicity pay gaps, and to produce action plans for all pay gaps.  

Measures suggested in this report to tackle discrimination and enforce worker’s rights, would have a significant impact on disabled young women who are more likely to face discrimination, be in precarious working situations, and feel less confident to challenge this. 

Disabled young women also need more flexible working options and flex as default, to support them into work in the first place. 

For more information on supporting disabled people and people with mental health problems at work, we recommend: 

Scope: Resources for businesses
Mind: Resources for employers

There is growing awareness of neurodiversity, but our survey suggests that this is far from translating into more inclusive workplaces for neurodivergent young women (including young women with autism and ADHD).

Similarly to disabled young women and those with mental health problems, neurodivergent young women are more likely to face barriers to work and to progression.

• Nearly half (46%) of neurodivergent young women say their mental health has made it difficult to apply for a job.

Neurodivergent young women experience higher than average levels of discrimination, and are less confident to challenge it.

Flexible working is very important for neurodivergent young women:

• 60% have requested to work flexibly, compared to 55% of all young women.
• 34% said that a lack of flexibility has made it difficult to apply for a job, compared to 30% overall.

They are also more likely to find themselves in precarious work:

Sadly, they are among the least likely groups to feel safe at work.

• 17% of neurodivergent young women told us that they don't feel safe at work compared to 11% of all young women.

It is clear that with neurodivergent young women facing additional barriers to thriving at work, businesses need to improve their awareness and understanding of supporting neurodivergent staff.

For further information and training, we recommend:

The Brain Charity: How to support neurodivergent employees and create a neuroinclusive workplace

While our sample size of trans young women was small at 57 respondents, the survey does offer a glimpse of just how difficult working life is for these young women. They are more likely to be experiencing unfair treatment at work, struggling with poor mental health and feeling hopeless about the future.

They are experiencing drastically higher levels of discrimination than the average:

• 56% of trans young women are worried about being discriminated against at work, compared to 24% on average. This is the highest for any group of young women we looked at.
• More than 3 in 10 (31%) trans young women have been discriminated against because of their gender identity.
• Over a quarter (26%) of trans young women have been discriminated against because of their appearance (compared to 18% of all young women).

And trans young women are feeling unsupported:

• 59% are worried about not having the support they need in their job compared to 42% overall.

Sadly, far too many trans young women are being deprived of hope and optimism for the future.

As a group particularly exposed to discrimination, the measures recommended elsewhere in this report to strengthen anti-discrimination policies and enforcement must include trans people.

Employers should also take steps to create trans-inclusive workplaces, with more useful information provided by Stonewall: Getting started with trans inclusion in your workplace | Stonewall