I joined 6 other speakers, each sharing a different reflection on that dateful moment in 2012. When it was my turn to speak, I stared into the dark and took two deep breaths, before sharing why I had spent the past six years working to progress gender equality, why I’d founded Raise Our Voice Australia, a social enterprise aimed at mobilising young women and gender diverse people to transform policy and politics, and the legacy of that now famous speech for young people.

The audience was full of women, many of whom had brought their daughters, eager to share intergenerational reflections on this visceral rallying call as our highest political leader spoke up against treatment women had experienced for decades. In conversations afterwards, I heard both their optimism, and their frustration in how far we still had to go.

As part of my role leading Raise Our Voice Australia, I speak to young women and gender diverse people every week. Overwhelmingly, these young people, aged between 12-32 from across Australia, are smart, driven, and have a clear idea of the future they want to create – a future centred on climate change, equality, positive mental health, and support for education. Their message is clear: we’re passionate, can lead important change, and we don’t want to run for office as we don’t want to be in the firing line. Because, despite measures to get more women into politics, the lack of media accountability is stark.

I founded Raise Our Voice Australia in 2020, after years lamenting the absence of young women and gender diverse people from the seats of Australia’s parliaments. Years before, I co-founded a campaign to help young people ask “why not me?” when looking at their political representatives. After working in domestic policy and foreign policy as a senior policy officer, it was clear to me that those with the most at stake – young people – were missing from this decision making. Raise Our Voice Australia started with a training program, sharing knowledge on and networks in these key areas, before launching campaigns to connect young people with their elected representatives, running research, and building our community.

At Raise Our Voice Australia, we talk about how politics for women is shifting, and yet, this week was a visceral reminder that despite some positive shifts since 2017, some things haven’t changed.

You don’t have to look far to find a negative media story about women in the public eye, especially near the campaign trail. While gender was a key talking point in the 2022 federal election, media reporting of women remains reliant on outdated tropes. Who’s taking care of her family? Variations on “she was too emotional”. And recently, when I saw that Nine edited Georgie Purcell’s photo, enlarging her breasts and editing in a non-existent midriff, I was irate.

When Nine blamed its editing of Georgie Purcell’s photo – the youngest member of Victorian Parliament and a young, passionate woman who’s upset many on the conservative side of politics with her progressive views and her tendency to challenge the status quo – their excuses seemed laughable. It takes no stretch of the imagination to believe that the photo editing was deliberate.

After Adobe denied Nine’s claims of “but it was the AI,” the final insult was The Australian newspaper describing Purcell as a “ former stripper,” seemingly aimed at devaluing her worth and status as an important female politician based on her prior employment. In 2022, research conducted by Raise Our Voice Australia in partnership with the Body Shop Australia New Zealand, found that 13 per cent of young women and gender‑diverse people felt represented in politics, with just 35 per cent saying they would consider politics as a career.

Interrogating the media’s treatment of women in the public eye, 87 per cent of respondents reported that representation of women in politics by the media is mostly negative. Respondents cited the treatment of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, alongside the commentary surrounding Brittany Higgins, and Grace Tame. Other respondents noted the additional vitriol levelled as women of colour, First Nations people, gender diverse people, disabled people and sex workers.

In Australia, many of our media companies lack integrity. Too many rely on manufacturing outrage and printing stories that devalue women. When Georgie is described as a “former stripper” whether we like it or not, people click on the stories, and media companies know this. It’s gross and demeaning, reminiscent of a bunch of boys jeering and letting the woman know that they don’t value her achievements.

Like many media subjects before her, Georgie is an impressive MP, and a role model to so many young people, myself including. In the age of TikTok, too many articles are the product of the attention economy and drive click-bait journalism. What happened to pieces that are fact checked and rigorous? What happened to quality journalism? Some might even argue the public must also be held responsible for the maintenance of these tropes – after all, it’s us in the comment sections driving these debates. But, where are the media organisations leading a nuanced discussion on issues of policy rather than publishing the same tired,misogynistic click bait?

Four years into running Raise Our Voice Australia, I’m often overwhelmed by the scope of the problem we’re trying to fix. I’m frustrated. Frustrated that with every step forward, there’s someone – a journalist, editor or media outlet – who refuses to move. That we continue to ask women to “just put their hands up” or “lean in” while we tear them down in the media and in comment sections. The business case for diversity is strong: when we have more diversity in leadership, better outcomes are reached. And who doesn’t want better outcomes for all Australians?

Last year, I completed Pathways to Politics through Melbourne University. I’m determined that these hateful bullies do not win. In a cohort of 30 women, I received training on how to run for office and hear from incredible women political leaders.

If we truly want a better future, we need change, and we need accountability. It’s time that media outlets took some responsibility, and we the public voted with our clicks. If you’re sexist, I won’t subscribe. Newspapers are a declining medium, so if they want Gen Z, millennial and Gen X subscribers, they need to refocus their stories to meet our modern standards of inclusion and diversity.

As for Georgie? I couldn’t have more admiration for her courage, and for calling out this misogyny. But she shouldn’t have to. It’s time for change. The stakes are too high not to.

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These were the words Caitlin Kelly said to her mum immediately after waking up from a 10-day coma. 

Still connected to machinery in the ICU, it seemed nothing was going to stop Caitlin from trying to continue on with her plans. 

After suffering a stroke at only 22-years-old and having to be put into a medically induced coma, Caitlin had woken up the day of the Taylor Swift concert that she’d gotten tickets for. 

While her health prevented her from eventually making it to the concert, it was this unwavering determination despite a challenge which proved to be definitive of the attitude that Caitlin would carry with her going forwards.  

The road ahead for Caitlin was filled with rehab and therapy as well as a period of recovery around the time of Covid that she describes as exacerbating her feelings of isolation from friends. 

“For me, I was still doing some rehab at home as well and when Covid happened, obviously I couldn’t even see home therapist anymore, so yeah just got kind of lonely,” she says, adding a that one silver lining to the situation was that she didn’t feel like she was missing out.

“That was kind of a good time to knuckle down and recover a bit in my own space.”

Following this period of isolation, Caitlin discovered a program that took her recovery to new heights– Happy Paws Happy Hearts (HPHH). The national organisation provides a safe space and community for vulnerable people to come together and share a mutual love of animals, while learning new skills and giving back in a meaningful way. 

With the purpose of connecting socially isolated people with rescue animals, HPHH proved to be the inclusive community that the young stroke survivor needed. 

“I think it’s had a really great effect in increasing my confidence and independence skills. It taught me how to rehabilitate myself within my own space.”

“The animal therapy really helped me to realise that I don’t have to be in a space where I’m judged because animals really don’t judge.”

In Australia, 1.1 million people experience social isolation or exclusion. At RSPCA– one of the animal rescue shelters that HPHH partners with– there are over 124,000 animals waiting for adoption every year. 

It was at RSPCA where Caitlin was able to gain new skills and learn how to look after animals with her new disabilities.

While the rehabilitation program looks after all sorts of animals– chickens, baby goats and even pigs– it was dogs that really struck Caitlin’s fancy, particularly the corgis.  

“It’s funny actually, my family jokes that I went into my coma as a cat person, and I came out as a dog person,” says Caitlin, who went from being a bit afraid of dogs to falling in love with them.

“I’m obsessed with corgis now,” she says.

“My very first meet-and-greet that happened was I met the trainer, Sam, and she was standing in the hallway and I could see just behind her was a corgi named Cheddar. So my very first moment of Happy Paws was getting to meet this corgi, and I thought, ‘I’m going to be really happy here’.”

It’s taken many years of recovery for Caitlin to get to where she’s at today, and while it’s taken a lot of time and patience, she’s gathered some wisdom along the way to help other young people going through a similar situation. 

“The advice I’d give to anyone else is to really find people to connect with that have been through something you’ve been through,” she says, noting that since not many people have strokes so young, it took her and her mum a bit of 3am googling in the ICU to find a couple people she could reach out to.

And for dealing with people who don’t understand her situation, Caitlin says it’s pretty common for others to judge someone’s differences “which is why Happy Paws (HPHH) can be so great, because everyone’s got a story and comes together and there’s no judgement”. 

“It’s really nice to have a pause and know that no one’s going to ask me why I might be a bit different,” she says. 

“For both animals and people– everyone sort of knows that we’ll just focus on what’s in front of us instead of what each other’s disabilities are.”

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Despite millions of taxpayers dollars being spent to encourage young women into the STEM field, researchers warn this lack of female representation in the Australian curriculum is furthering the gender gap.

The study was conducted after lead researcher, Dr Kat Ross from Curtin University realised that the woman who “basically discovered” radioactivity- Marie Curie- wasn’t eve mentioned in the radioactivity section of a NSW high school syllabus. 

Dr Ross had been training teachers for a physics syllabus in 2018 when she learned of this shocking oversight and began to wonder who else wasn’t being mentioned in students’ lessons. 

Herself and seven other researchers from Curtin University and the Australian National University (ANU) looked further into this disparity by analysing the curriculum of the four year 11 and year 12 STEM subjects taught in Australian schools- biology, chemistry, physics and environmental science.

“Across Australia there are around 150 male scientists mentioned. And there’s only one female scientist that’s mentioned at all,” Dr. Ross said, speaking to the study’s findings, published on Monday.

This female scientist being recognised is British chemist Rosalind Franklin, whose work was central to understanding the molecular structures of DNA. Franklin is named in coursework in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory. 

All other states and the ACT exclusively reference the scientific contributions of men– an issue that the report’s authors say is contributing to a low engagement of women in scientific fields. 

Even though one third of the growth of Australia’s STEM-qualified workforce, which increased by 300,000 workers in the last 10 years, was driven by women, a 2023 Government report revealed that women only represent 15 per cent of the male-dominated industry. 

Dr Ross said that this celebration of the “lone male genius” is an undervaluing of women’s work in STEM and leaves out important female role models for aspiring younger women.

“Year 11 and year 12 is such a critical stage for students to be thinking about what careers they’re pursuing,” she said.

“And for women, you’re essentially telling them if they want to pursue science … there’s no future for them because there’s no recognition or acceptance that women are even a part of science. That’s obviously very incorrect and a really damaging representation of scientists to be giving to women at such a critical stage.”

While the study’s research team are working with Queensland curriculum developers and have curated a list of women scientists they recommend adding to the syllabus, they say that this isn’t going to completely solve the issue. 

Dr Ross says that meaningful change for systemic and structural barriers in science will only move forward by “highlighting the work of women” and “having a frank discussion about what it means to be a woman in STEM”. 

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A new study from the University of NSW, published in the journal Body Image, suggests the exposure to short form, “appearance-ideal content” videos on social media is having a negative impact on body image. 

“Appearance-ideal content can pressure women to look a certain way that is unrealistic or completely unattainable,” says Dr Jasmine Fardouly, senior author of the study from the School of Psychology at UNSW Science. 

“We know this starts early, with girls as young as six reporting unhappiness with their bodies, desires to look thinner, and even dieting to lose weight. Social media isn’t the only place where these appearance ideals are promoted, but there is a lot more opportunity to internalise them through the platforms.”

Researchers showed over 200 young women, aged 17 to 28, images or videos from influencers on Instagram and TikTok that reflected appearance ideals and then surveyed the participants on body image measures.

According to the lead author of the study, Jade Gurtual, the results showed that appearance-ideal short form video content on social media can have adverse effects on appearance satisfaction, negative mood, and self-objectification. 

Participants made the same amount of “upward appearance comparisons” whether they viewed a photo or video, meaning they judged themselves as less attractive, which negatively impacted their mood and body dissatisfaction.

“The total exposure time was only like a minute and a half, and we found that was enough to have harmful impacts,” says Dr Fardouly.

“That was just in a lab-based setting, so it’ll be interesting to measure the impact of exposure over the long-term and whether that has some cumulative effect.”

According to the study, “appearance ideals” are the social expectation we have about how we should aspire to look. This is often a narrow representation of physical appearance, and can include attributes like long legs, toned stomachs, large eyes, full lips and blemish-free skin.

Social media, especially TikTok, can be a very appearance-focused environment, and appearance ideals are often amplified through the use of editing techniques, including face and body filters, many of which are hard to detect. 

“If appearance-ideal video content is perceived as unedited and enhanced when it in reality is, then users may be more likely to engage in negative social comparisons and internalise the appearance ideals,” Gurtala said.

“So, viewing ideal video content may be more harmful than viewing ideal image content for some users.”

What can be done?

The study found that participants were generally spending 2-3 hours a day on social media, and suggested that reducing screen time and diversifying the type of content consumed may be helpful strategies to reduce exposure to harmful appearance-ideal content. 

“There’s also a role for the platforms, which can have very pervasive algorithms that promote appearance ideals and keep users engaged, to help expand the range of content shown to users in their social media feeds,” Gurtala said.

The researchers also noted that further research is needed to determine if there are any positive effects of viewing short-form video content featuring diverse and unedited body content.

“Some evidence suggests image-based content that challenges these beauty ideals and promotes body positivity, body function, and body acceptance help to make social media a less harmful environment for body image,” Dr Fardouly said.

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At just age 26, she’s one of Australia’s youngest Managing Directors, demonstrating the power of putting young female professionals into leadership roles.

“I started interning at Taurus at the tail end of 2017,” Sakr tells Women’s Agenda. “It was also the final semester at university where I started to question everything I had studied for three years, wondering if I had just wasted time studying a field I may not even want a career in.”

Having studied a Bachelor of Advertising and Public Relations, Sakr decided to give the career path a chance before walking away by applying to the TaurusAcademy© Internship. It was the internship where she says she got a unique, hands on and practical experience, that gave her clarity.

“I wanted to love my job,” said Sakr. “I was willing to be challenged, get through the hard days because I always had people from the Taurus world around me who were supporting, mentors and genuinely cared for the business and for me.”

Under the mentorship of Sharon Williams, her boss and Founder of Taurus, Sakr says she felt her leadership style was “very much supported” and helped her to grow to where she is now as Managing Director.

Developing female leadership within companies is crucial to Australia’s workforce success, so positive stories like Sakr’s should be highlighted. 

According to a study conducted by McKinsey & Company, companies with a higher representation of young females in leadership positions tend to outperform their peers. 

The research found that businesses in the top quartile for gender diversity in executive roles were 25 per cent more likely to experience above-average profitability compared to companies in the bottom quartile.

Embracing an age-diverse workforce that actively includes the perspectives of young female professionals represents untapped potential in Australia’s corporate culture. 

Sakr hopes that more companies can begin to place a greater emphasis on an employee’s “genuine output” and “care for their business and customers” before passing them up for a leadership role based on gender or age.

And for young women who are still having to navigate barriers to leadership opportunities at work, Sakr has some valuable advice from her own experience.

She says “to trust your instincts, learn and observe from professionals in your workplace, stick out the tough times – then you become your own case study and validation to others that you can achieve anything.”

“You need to be gutsy, with grace and trust your instincts.”

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“Students who are sexually assaulted or harassed in a university context have needs that can only be met by their university,” said Sharna Bremner, founder of End Rape on Campus Australia.

“Court processes can take years to deliver any kind of outcome – students can’t wait that long for the basic support they need, and that could make the difference between graduating or failing out.”

Echoing this sentiment, Renee Carr, Executive Director at Fair Agenda said, “Despite saying the right things, many universities are still actively causing harm with their response to sexual violence by their students and staff. Five years on from the landmark Human Rights Commission Inquiry into this crisis – National Student Safety Survey data shows very little has changed. Students are paying the price; and universities are not being held accountable.”

In a submission to the national ‘Universities Accord’ reform process currently underway, End Rape on Campus Australia and Fair Agenda have said that they recommend “the creation of an independent, expert-led accountability and oversight mechanism, such as a Taskforce, with a mandate to address sexual violence in university contexts”.

Most universities are failing at every point of responsibility when it comes to instances of sexual violence, according to the groups, which is why women’s safety advocates are call for an independent accountability and oversight mechanism.

Affecting student wellbeing and education outcomes, the recent submission points to areas where universities are failing to meet basic safety standards, including a lack of evidence-based interventions to prevent rape on campus as well as failure to ensure staff don’t have a history of using sexual violence.

The submission also notes failures in supporting students who report rape with timely access to trauma-informated counselling, and a failure to provide responses for urgent requests to basic safety and academic accommodations. 

“When you want to change your tutorial so you’re not in class with someone who raped you – you need the university to act,” said Bremner, adding that the same applies for someone dealing with PTSD from a sexual assault who’s asked for an extension on their assignment. 

“Frequently university administrations also choose not to protect students when rapists are reported at their institution,” she said. “We’ve had cases where multiple young women have reported the same offending student to their university, and he’s been allowed to remain on campus, which has enabled him to harm other students. If he’d been copying an essay, instead of violently violating another student’s body – university policy would have seen him expelled.”

Bremner’s examples highlight the urgent need for universities to ensure students aren’t forced to sit in the same classroom as the person who raped them, and the need for action to be taken to ensure staff or students known to be using violence aren’t given the opportunity to cause further harm in university contexts. 

Advocates also point to the need for universities to enable minor adjustments that help ensure students don’t fail out of their course while dealing with trauma associated with sexual assault. 

University student and Fair Agenda campaigner Dani Villafaña said that sexual violence is highly damaging to students’ wellbeing and that “when you’re too scared to go to campus, that means you can’t go to class, or to the library, or to academic support services.”

“When you can’t safely access the things you need to learn, the chances of you being able to succeed academically are almost zero. And if you don’t graduate, you can’t fulfill your dream of being a doctor, or a teacher, or an engineer.”

The Australian Human Rights Commission confirmed the scale of sexual violence at universities five years ago, but Carr says substantive action is still yet to be taken and that universities “can’t be trusted to mark their own work in this area”. 

“We need the federal government to ensure independent oversight – and deliver accountability when universities decide to put student safety and wellbeing at risk.”

If you or someone you know is impacted by family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au

In an emergency, call 000.

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McCambridge had no family history and says that when her GP called to give her the news, she was at work and her initial thoughts were, “Are you joking” and “I don’t really have time for this”.

Then, when her doctor mentioned the prospect of undergoing chemotherapy, McCambridge’s mind jumped to questions of fertility.

Chemotherapy and some hormone blocking treatment for breast cancer can make it more difficult to conceive.

Before starting treatment, McCambridge chose to freeze her eggs as an insurance policy for having children some time in the future, but says “it was a crazy time to be thinking about that kind of thing because you just want to start treatment and get going”.

For young women in the thick of their careers or thinking about starting a family, breast cancer can be life-altering.

Premature menopause, fertility and sexuality issues and the impact of breast cancer on caring for young children, education and careers are all experiences that can leave young women with higher levels of distress following a breast cancer diagnosis.

It’s important to note that when the medical community refers to ‘young women’ with breast cancer, they’re talking about those who are premenopausal or 40 years and younger.

Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Vice Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Ann Partridge says the reason this cut-off was chosen is that “historically, the women diagnosed under 40 seem to have fared the worst on average in terms of recurrence,” she says, adding that this is changing with better research.

Dr. Partridge also says that the age requirement for who is considered a ‘young woman with breast cancer’ spans into the unique issues faced by those under the age of 40, such as fertility.

Approximately 7 per cent of breast cancers diagnosed in Australia are in women in this age group, which equates to approximately 1,000 women each year. And unfortunately, the numbers seem to be rising.

Risk factors

“One of the reasons we think breast cancer in young women is going up is because we’re delaying child bearing,” says Dr. Partridge, adding that not having children is a risk factor for breast cancer.

She says this delay in having children is “for good societal reasons like going to school and starting careers, but that does seem to be a contribution to higher rates in our younger patients.”

Hormone treatment or contraceptives are another risk factor that patients may ask their medical team about, however, Associate Professor Nicolas Wilcken from the University of Sydney and Board Director at Breast Cancer Trials, says the benefits outweigh the risks.

“Oral contraceptives very slightly increase the risk,” says Dr. Wilcken. “And that is massively overwhelmed by all the good things that they do such as decreasing your risk of unwanted pregnancy, and also massively decreasing your risk of ovarian cancer.”

As for what decreases the risk of breast cancer in young women, Dr. Holly Keane, a breast surgical oncologist at the Peter MaCallum Cancer Centre and the Royal Women’s Hospital Melbourne, recommends patients exercise at moderate to high intensity at least 3 times a week, maintain a healthy weight level and avoid excessive alcohol consumption.

Symptoms and treatment side effects

“No one is too young to get breast cancer,” says Dr. Partridge, adding that it’s important for young women to check their breasts, be aware of their personal risk factors and consult with their doctor.

Some of the symptoms Dr. Partridge recommends patients look out for are any lumps or bumps, skin changes, rashes, swelling in your arms, nipple discharge and pain in the breasts, even though this is more rare.

Treatment side effects in young women with breast cancer can include menopausal issues, decreased fertility, weight gain, changes in libido and hair loss. Young women might also need to undergo a mastectomy.

Clinical Psychologist Associate Professor Lesley Stafford says these kinds of side effects can be unpleasant for anyone but that they can be “particularly unpleasant for a person who’s in the prime of their youth, establishing relationships”.

Fear of recurrence

One of the most undermet needs of breast cancer in young women is support for the fear of recurrence, says Stafford.

She reminds patients that it’s quite normal to have this fear but that it’s important to try to stop yourself from catastrophising. Being mindful, unplugging from social media and seeking support are all helpful things to do.

Having finished her breast cancer treatment, McCambridge says “I feel like I’m definitely on the other side of it, but there’s always that fear of recurrence”.

It’s a mentality that she says has been especially hard to navigate over the past year but that she’s working to improve. Having a supportive partner, family and being able to exercise more after treatment are all things that she’s grateful to be able to lean on.

“It sounds so cliche but just take each day as it comes,” McCambridge says to any young woman having to experience breast cancer. “Focus on what you’re doing at the moment because it’s hard and you need a focused mentality.”

To watch the entire Q&A on this topic moderated by Author and Journalist Annabel Crabb, and to sign up to watch future Q&A’s, visit the Breast Cancer Trials website at: www.breastcancertrials.org.au/qa-events/

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You only need to look at the media commentary around the School Strike for Climate movement, which is largely led by young women, to see this in action. Worse, there is often outright impatience for the growing group of young women who rightly point out that efforts to adapt to, and address climate change, should pay more attention to the complex links between climate change and gender.

Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change. They make up 80 per cent of the people displaced by extreme weather events such as heatwaves, bushfires, floods, and drought. When these disasters strike, women are also more likely to be injured, less likely to survive, and face greater hardships in accessing relief and recovery support. 

Some young women and girls may also be forced to leave school to help with agricultural and gathering responsibilities as climate change makes it harder for women to do these tasks in areas closer to their homes, making them more vulnerable to gender-based violence the further they travel. 

While women bear the brunt of worsening climate change impacts,  we regularly see executive decisions and policies being made in boardrooms and political spheres—both of which are male-dominated spaces—which exacerbate the climate crisis and perpetuate gender inequity.  

I am acutely aware of this injustice as I spend my working life advocating for better policies to tackle the climate crisis – like building a fully renewable energy system, driving a shift to cleaner transport options, and ending Australia’s reliance on polluting coal, oil, and gas. 

It’s remarkable how often this still means being in rooms mostly full of men in suits (and the occasional hi-vis). The energy, transport and industrial sectors will be critical to Australia’s successful transformation to a zero emissions powerhouse. Given the outsize impacts of climate change on women, and the incredible leadership we are already seeing from women calling for climate action,  it’s not good enough that the spaces where these conversations are happening continue to be so male-dominated. 

Of course there are plenty of wonderful, inspiring Australian women who are leaders on climate policy and action – like Seed Mob’s Amelia Telford, Anjali Sharma who took the federal government to court to fight for a duty of care to protect young people from climate change, and Climate Council’s own CEO Amanda McKenzie among them.  

But if we want to see climate action that is both urgent and equitable, then we must create many more opportunities for young women to be part of these conversations wherever they are happening, so they can shape the kind of society they want to live in. 

We need more young women thinking through the challenges of electrifying everything; working out how we can support and enable Australians to move around differently; and building the industries that will power our future prosperity beyond coal and gas. 

We need more young women in these spaces both because they will bring fresh perspectives to help us tackle these challenges, and because they will call out issues specific to the intersection of climate and gender that we’re often not even properly talking about yet.

So if you’re an executive in the energy sector, a transport firm, or a big industrial emitter, ask yourself: where and how am I creating the space for young women to contribute to the urgent work ahead of us in designing Australia’s zero emissions future? How can my company be part of building a world which is not just cleaner, but fairer at the same time? 

And if you’re a young woman wondering where to make a difference, consider this your call up: we need your voices, we want your views, and your work in these sectors could genuinely change our shared future for the better. A future that’s safe and inclusive for all of us.

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The reasons are varied. For starters, young women are not only more educated and ambitious than they’ve ever been, they’re also increasingly cognisant of what it takes to feel fulfilled; to have a thriving career, social life, and family.

Research from Bain & Company this year highlights this, revealing how leading organisations of the future “will proactively address the gender imbalances that hold women back”, with senior leaders implementing a range of policies to boost inclusive workplace culture to attract and retain future female talent.

However, the high degree of career stress experienced by young women suggests this isn’t happening at the pace it needs to.

In a study published by Monash University earlier this year, career uncertainty, indecision, worries about job availability, and perceptions of constrained career choices were all prevalent among the female respondents.

The study of 1300+ students in their final year of schooling revealed that more than half of young women believed that their career choices were constrained because of who they were or where they had come from—including feelings of being prohibited by gender.

One in five said they were overwhelmed by career information and choices while 40 per cent cited concern that they would never achieve a “real career”.

Co-author, Dr Beatriz Gallo Cordoba noted that while “it’s not uncommon to hear that ‘women can do anything they choose’, the young women from a range of backgrounds in our study feel like they have limited options when choosing a career.”

The findings point to a likely disconnect between what young women are searching for and what is being offered to them by employers. It also shows that despite organisations being desperate for female talent, they’re simply not doing enough to entice young, aspirational leaders.

What young women want

In speaking with three, ambitious women aged between 20-30, some important themes and insights emerged supporting these reports.

Katherine Ho, a paralegal and final-year law student living in Sydney says “balance” is one of her highest priorities as she prepares for her future.

“While I am definitely ambitious and passionate about my career, I value my mental health just as much,” she says. “The moment I feel overwhelmed and burnt out, I always take it upon myself to tap out and take care of myself first. Doing that will make you happier to do your job later.”

Bronte Charles, a 21-year-old marketing and media student at Macquarie University and a cross-platform journalist for National Indigenous Television (NITV) agrees, citing that as a First Nations woman, flexibility “to take time off for sorry business and switching around public holidays such as January 26” helps to protect mental wellbeing.

Bain’s analysis reflects this attitude, with workers of the future emphasising a greater expectation of flexibility and “passport career” options offered to them by prospective employers.

Charles also notes that following a career with purpose has been her greatest motivator— a luxury seldom afforded to prior generations of women.

“I had always seen my mum work hard for her family. She worked to provide for us kids. I remember her telling us stories about how she would walk to the station pregnant at 5am and catch the train into the city to her job at Australia Post. She had always been ambitious, just for another reason – to provide. Today, the ambition of young women looks different. It looks like getting a promotion, finding what you love to do and working somewhere that values you,” she says.

She adds that women today are unafraid to put themselves first.

“I think women nowadays plan their careers differently to other generations. Whether that be entering a male-dominated industry, choosing a career based on what you’re passionate about, or putting yourself first and not planning your career around your partner and kids,” she says. “Now, when choosing a career, it’s more about us and our wants and needs, rather than the wants and needs of those around us and society.”

But despite the ambition and confidence of young women, their ability to get ahead is still being thwarted by several persistent structural inequalities, including gender biases and a lack of necessary female role models at the top.

As outlined in the Bain study, “children learn to follow gender expectations in play and career ambitions, based on the idea that girls and boys have different capabilities. In fact, studies have shown that by the age of seven, girls choose more “caring” careers, like teaching and healthcare, and boys choose more stereotypically masculine careers.”

This early gender bias carries through to the workplace and can hold women back from their full potential.  

Chief Executive Women’s (CEW) Senior Executive Census this year, showed that women make up about 50 percent of the Australian workforce but hold only a quarter of ASX300 executive leadership team (ELT) positions—a massive barrier to unlocking future female talent.

Young women rely on “diverse role models” who play an important role in career aspiration as well as “seeing leaders who challenge traditional gender norms, Bain’s research highlights.

Seeing women at the top also fosters broader inclusion within organisations, which is necessary to maximise retention, performance, and innovation.

25-year-old Zara Seidler, co-founder of The Daily Aus, Australia’s leading social-first news company, emphasises the importance of this in her own career trajectory and what she aims to seek out in the future.

“Having a talented team around me that I can continue to learn from, an amazing mentor and continuous innovation and evolution for The Daily Aus” remain her three central priorities as she builds her career. “I think young women are now planning for careers and roles that didn’t exist in previous generations, and are continuing to push boundaries,” she says.

Ho agrees, suggesting that progressive and supportive leaders help to shift the dial for young women aiming to get ahead.

“I’m proud of the women who I stand beside in the workplace because it proves everyday how we really are a force to be reckoned with. If women in the workplace prosper, so does everyone else.”

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Growing up in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, these teenage girls are a group who are virtually invisible when it comes to overseas aid. At just 5 per cent of the current Australian aid budget the percentage of aid assigned for this sector has remained unchanged since 2016 and yet we know that the struggles faced by the girls of the world have only intensified.

They are the victims of gender-based violence exacerbated by the pandemic, they are being sold into child marriage for food as their families face starvation and famine and they are dealing with war on their doorstep or fleeing as refugees.

But we know that adolescent girls are such powerful agents of change. When they are allowed to thrive, they can lead climate movements like Kenyan climate crusader Vanessa Nakate or Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. They can frighten an entire regime like Malala Yousafzai has and they can call out discrimination wherever they see it like Australia’s formidable Yasmin Poole.

They have to be given the chance. A recent survey by Plan International Australia has shown that the Australian people are willing to give it to them with a significant 85 per cent of people saying that the government should increase efforts to support girls around the world.

There are more than half a billion adolescent girls aged 10-19 living in vulnerable communities around the world. Importantly, more than half of the global population of adolescent girls are in the Asia Pacific region.

Despite all of this, some areas of the aid budget have actually gone backwards.

In 2016 we spent $59.4 million on gender-based violence initiatives specifically targeting the needs of adolescent girls, but in 2020 this decreased to $43.65 million. 

As the CEO of Australia’s biggest charity for girls’ equality, I have witnessed first-hand the ways that adolescent girls are impacted disproportionately by all crises, from the pandemic to wars and displacement to the climate crisis. In recent times, the humanitarian sector has watched on horrified as the hard-won progress that has been made for teen girls’ rights in many places have been wound right back.

In Afghanistan, her hopes of completing secondary school have been stopped dead by the Taliban. She is now only allowed to leave the house if strictly necessary and accompanied by a male family member.

In Ukraine, she has been forced from her home and separated from her family by rocket fire and gunshots. Continuing her education is one thing helping her through the trauma.

In South Sudan, she is hungry, and the last in her family to eat when food is scarce. As the World Food Program is forced to shut down programs due to lack of funding, things are about to get much worse. Conflict rages all around her.

In Myanmar, military rule is curtailing her freedom, safety and access to food and education. Sexual and gender-based violence is being used as a weapon of war. She has no idea when it will end.

In Indonesia, she is once again fighting against her own child marriage, with rates rising for the first time in years due to the pandemic. She’s determined to continue her education.

In Tonga, she’s still recovering from the volcanic eruption in early 2022, which destroyed her community. The reality of climate change is upon her and she doesn’t know if her country will still exist into the future. She’s prepared to fight on the world stage for stronger climate action.

And right here in Australia, the mental health impacts of Covid lockdowns are compounded by the existential fear of our planet becoming unlivable due to climate change. She is using her activism to cope, raising her voice and leading the movement for stronger climate action at home and worldwide.

We know that investing in adolescent girls can – and will – change the world.

We know the power of young women – we see it every day working with Plan International Australia’s Youth Activist Series. In fact, so mighty is the adolescent girl that the UN has named her as the single most powerful group we should be investing in. According to UNFPA, unlocking the full potential of the 10-year-old girl could transform economies and make it possible to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in full. With only eight years to go till the SDG deadline of 2030, there is an urgent need for the actions that will catalyse the most change and investing in girls is one of those.

Now is the time to support adolescent girls through Australia’s aid and development program, ensuring that they can live free from violence, get back into school, and thrive.

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For the last five years, I’ve focused on getting more young women into politics, building on a further five years leading youth movements creating political change. I’ve been recognised on a domestic and international level, have run workshops at the UN, and been invited to speak to international audiences on youth engagement with politics. But not once have I seriously considered running for office (despite being asked many, many times), nor have I ever been tempted to join a political party. To be honest, I’m not sure that our political system will let me create the change I wish to see – and I’m terrified of the way women in the public eye are treated, a concern often reflected to me by the young women and gender diverse people I work with.

So, it was no surprise to my team at Raise Our Voice Australia when our recent survey of young women and gender diverse people, conducted in partnership with The Body Shop ANZ, showed young women and gender diverse people are disgusted with the culture of politics and want to influence decision-making, but are avoiding the toxic halls of parliament with a barge-pole. But this group is not to be underestimated: young women and gender diverse people are ready to wield their votes at the coming election, with 83% of female and gender diverse respondents aged 30 and under reporting that they are far more likely to make an informed vote. In 2020, an estimated 3.2 million young people aged 15–24 lived in Australia, making up 12% of the Australian population. Young women and gender diverse people make up about half of this. While this might seem small, if we were to be represented adequately, we would see just over 13 politicians sitting in parliament, enough to make or break a bill. Candidates: ignore this group at your peril.

Further to this, 44% of respondents said they’d be less likely to pursue a career in politics in response to the events of the last 12 months, with 61% of this cohort indicating that media discussions have been a discouraging factor. 37% of respondents said they were less likely to become a member of a political party. This should give us cause for concern; whether we like it or not, political parties are the home of the leaders who must lead and drive our national structural reform, including around gender issues.

The last four years have seen a groundswell in discussions on the absence of women from politics. We haven’t been as good at having the conversation about the absence of young women and gender diverse people.

The thing is, we’re a force to be reckoned with. We’re leading climate protests and demanding action. We’ve recently been successful in securing a commitment for securing consent education in schools. We’ve redefined conversations around sexual assault and the strength of survivors. As we consider our recovery from the pandemic, it’s critically important to have young people as the architects for the country we will lead – and are already leading.

This election, please listen to our voices, the voices of passionate young leaders, and recognise that political engagement is more than just running for office. We need to recognise that the issues facing young women and gender diverse people – that face young people – may overlap with those of our youth-adjacent counterparts, but they are decidedly different. As young women, we not only faced the gendered impacts of the crisis, including higher volumes of lost employment due to the pandemic and increased caring responsibilities, but the challenges faced by young people, including higher rates of COVID cases, higher rates of psychological distress, and under-representation in JobKeeper access. And we’re ready to vote.    

A democracy which creates the best outcomes is one which reflects the population it represents. It incorporates the lived experience of the people who are at the forefront of the issues it’s seeking to solve. And if we don’t ensure that this election, we risk leaving a significant part of our population behind.

So, candidates: listen up. Young women are listening, we’re researching, we’re deciding. And you need to take us seriously this election.

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Over the last decade, women’s workforce participation has grown and so too have the levels of educational attainment achieved by women with ABS figures confirming women are more likely than men to get a Bachelor degree or above qualification.

Further, according to WGEA the gender pay gap consistently decreased between 2014 and 2019. 

Despite such developments, Monash University research into young Australian women reveals high levels of stress, lack of career direction and potentially negative external influences over their career choices.

Our findings suggest a need to look more closely at the critical years of senior schooling when career choices are formed. This has important implications for young women in general, and careers education in particular.

Firstly, let’s look at the bigger picture.

In a survey of 2,473 Victorian secondary school students from five diverse schools, students were asked about the kinds of career advice they receive at school. We found that young women’s career choices continue to be concentrated within a handful of traditional, professional career pathways. Echoing OECD data, 65 percent of young women who nominated a career sought career destinations within the 10 typical popular occupations.

Nine out of ten of these occupations are considered professional, requiring tertiary study (such as doctors, teachers and veterinarians). Aiming for these types of careers has persisted in recent decades despite the emergence of new occupations, for example, from technological developments (such as artificial intelligence and social media).

At the same time, a quarter (26.6 percent) of female survey respondents believed that there are too many people going for jobs in their preferred career.

Over half (57.9 percent) of female respondents felt they had fewer career choices because of who they are or where they come from.

OECD data indicates that backgrounds matter in young people’s career choices and aspirations. For example, high-performing young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are four times less likely to hold ambitious aspirations than high achievers from the most privileged backgrounds.

The pressures and expectations of others seems to be a major reason young women pursue these careers, nonetheless. Social pressures are significant, with 49.1 percent making choices based on others’ expectations (e.g. parents/carers). Just over half (51.6 percent) were worried that others would not approve of their choices. A similar percentage (54.6 percent) were making choices to please others.

Secondly, many young women suffer from stress in choosing employment pathways. Over a quarter (26.1 percent) often felt down or worried about choosing a career. Around one in five (21.5 percent) felt overwhelmed by the career information and choices that they faced (with 34.1 percent being neutral).

Perhaps the most striking finding is that just over 39 percent of female respondents were concerned about ever achieving a “real” career. Slightly more (40 percent) felt they had no career direction. A third overall (33.5 percent) did not know what careers best suited them. A similar proportion (31 percent) did not feel employable.

Even when very specific choices were made, many young women felt constrained in their abilities to make career choices. Consequently, this is affecting confidence in their decision-making and their future career direction and wellbeing. Career stress is also associated with relationships with others and in young women’s own career decision-making abilities and perceived obligations.

Perhaps the top career choices continue to be in the same fields because they still resemble some sort of linear trajectory. Over a third (34.5 percent) of young women who have chosen a career still feel anxious about it. This could imply that they know their pathways are not going to be linear and feel the pressure from ‘others’ (family, relatives, friends, teachers) who expect young women’s career experiences to be the same as they were for them, some decades ago.

Young women understand that if they want a “real” career, they have a restricted set of choices. Anything outside of this set of choices is uncertain – hence they might lack confidence and anxiety when choosing a career, especially if it is counter to the expectations of significant others. Consideration of the social forces shaping young women’s choices needs greater attention, particularly in relation to careers education, which sits at the periphery of many schools. Careers educators need to be deeply engaged in the changing workforce and to find ways of bringing these significant others (parents/carers) along the careers education journey.

Last year, our Australian Youth Barometer survey of 505 Australians aged 18-24 found that almost half (46 percent) of young people experienced significant stress due to ‘feeling stuck’ in life. Just over half (52 percent) of young women in this survey reported this feeling. Some of this stress might relate to the impact of the pandemic. Another explanation might be the wider uncertainty associated with the contemporary workforce and the erosion of single, linear career pathways. Regardless, something much deeper is going on. Careers education in schools is a good place to start. 

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