Young Women & COVID19

COVID has made life harder for young women.

Many women under 30 have lost work due to COVID. Sectors where many young women work, like retail, hospitality, tourism and the arts, faced shutdowns and huge job losses. Some young women still have not had their hours recovered.
Other young women have been working on the frontlines of COVID, in sectors like health and community services where the majority of the workforce is female. This meant that they have faced the burdens of increased work pressure, COVID risk and customer or client aggression.
Many young women have experienced financial hardship over the past year. Some had to make the difficult choice to withdraw money from their Super, which has meant that the retirement savings gap between young women and young men has widened.

Share our message

If we speak up about our experiences, elevate the voices of young women and bring information to decision-makers, we can ensure that young women are factored into the COVID recovery. To do this, we need the stories told to us by young women shared far and wide. Read and share our report: Loss of work, isolation and worry: the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on young women.

Read the report!

Read the report

The Working Women's Centre has heard from hundreds of young women about their experiences during the pandemic. We have come up with four key recommendations for how to factor young women into the COVID-19 recovery. To help make these recommendations a reality, read and share the report.

Why is this important?

Young women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID – from job losses in hospo and the Arts, to increased caring responsibilities at home, to working on the frontlines in the health and caring sectors. We need to ensure that young women are factored into the COVID recovery.

“I was told by many people that no one is looking to employ people at the moment, especially inexperienced young people.” Unemployed woman aged 15-19
“I had to take out my super, as did my partner. Though we have worked the same I realised he had double the amount of super I did. He still has super in his account and I have none.” student and parent aged 20-24
“I work in a supermarket and stressed a great deal about getting COVID, especially the risk of passing it on to customers/family.” Female essential worker aged 20-24
“I now feel very hopeless about the future. I don’t know what my life will look like anyone in 2, 5, 10 years. All of the things I hoped to do have vanished.” Woman working in the Arts, aged 25-29This Working Women’s Centre youth project is funded by the Government of South Australia – Department of Human Services.

How to get involved

Read the report

The Working Women's Centre has heard from hundreds of young women about their experiences during the pandemic. We have come up with four key recommendations for how to factor young women into the COVID-19 recovery. To help make these recommendations a reality, read and share the report.

Read the report

A powerful movement of young women

We are gathering experiences of young women and sharing our findings with decision-makers. Our Young Women’s Employment Council spoke at parliament house to the COVID-19 Response Committee.

Join the movement

The impact of COVID on international students

We want to speak with more female international students about the challenges faced by young women on temporary visas. Help us run a consultation with a group of young women.

Email

Latest updates

See all news

17 Apr 2024

Speaking from Experience

The Australian Human Rights Commission has launched Speaking from Experience, a landmark project that centres the voices of people with lived experience in workplace sexual harassment reform. Sexual harassment...

2024 Law Student Volunteer Program: Welcoming New Volunteers

We are pleased to announce the commencement of our Law Student Volunteer Program for Semester 1, 2024, with the successful recruitment of two new volunteers, Lejla Cacvic and Suzy...