More young women aged 18-30 in the UK are facing workplace inequity with 50% saying that they had faced some sort of discrimination, compared to 42% last year, according to new research from the charity Young Women’s Trust.  

The charity polled 4,061 women in England and Wales and a comparison group of 1,049 young men in the same age group. It also polled 907 HR decision makers.  

The survey found that 28% of HR decision said it is harder for women to progress in their organisations than men. Furthermore, 15% said that men are better suited to senior management jobs than women, and 19% said they would be reluctant to hire a woman who they thought might start a family. Only 13% of HR professionals said the same for a man.  

Over a third of HR decision makers (34%) confirmed that they were aware of instances of young women being discriminated against in the past year. The same number agreed that sexist behaviour still exists within their organisation.  

Meanwhile, 23% of young women said that they are being paid less than their male peers even for the same work, despite this being illegal. When discrimination occurs, women feel less able to challenge or report it (25%) compared to young men (17%).     

The survey also showed the progression and job security is a big cause of concern, with 49% of young women say they are worried about not having enough opportunities to progress, up from 47% last year. At the same time, 36% of young women are worried about job security, up from 33% last year.   

Young women are more likely than young men to have been offered a zero hours contract at 42% compared to 33%. 

Low pay is a huge worry for young women with over half (56%) saying their financial situation was uncomfortable compared to 40% of young men. At the same time, 55% of young women are worried about how much their job pays, while 23% have been paid less than the minimum wage they were entitled to, compared to 20% of young men.  

“We know it’s hard for young women to get the jobs that they want because of barriers such as a lack of flexible working and affordable childcare, but then when they do enter the workplace, discrimination and a lack of support to progress creates this broken rung on the career ladder,” said Claire Reindorp, the chief executive at Young Women’s Trust. “It’s a travesty that in 2023 young women still aren’t being given the same chances in life as young men.” 

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which represents HR managers, told The Guardian the results of the survey were ‘concerning’ and said they showed ‘we have much further to go’. 

“There needs to be a much stronger focus now on increasing the number of women in executive committee roles and their direct reports to build a strong pipeline of female talent for the future,” said Claire McCartney, the senior inclusion and resourcing adviser for the CIPD, which also called for continuing education of decision-makers “on the importance of gender equality at every level and take active steps to address gender stereotypes and biases head-on.”