‘Harrowing’ belief young women hold about Australian society

Young Australian women don’t believe they can influence Australian society according to landmark new research out of Young Women’s Alliance (YWA), and it’s no surprise to Founder and CEO Rizina Yadav.
A national survey of 3,300 young Aussies aged 18-28 found while most young men feel they can affect the society they live in, the opposite is true for young women.
When asked to rate how strongly they agree with the statement “I believe I can influence Australian society” on a scale from zero to 10, where zero is described as “strongly disagree” and 10 is “strongly agree”, young men reported an average score of 5.24 out of 10.
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Young women, on the other hand, reported an average of just 3.14 out of 10.
“That was quite gutting to read, that there’s universal acknowledgement, basically, among young women that things are bad,” Yadav tells 9honey, calling the individual stories she heard “harrowing”.
“But then when you talk about redress and solutions, it’s sort of like we strung our shoulders. We feel powerless in our ability to affect society.”
The new YWA research covered a broad range of topics, including education, career, political agency, relationships, and gender-based violence, all areas that have tangible effects on young women’s lives.
Most young women reported being disadvantaged across these areas due to their gender, but felt they had no power to actually change their lot.
It’s not for lack of trying. Many respondents had been involved in youth advisory councils and other programs designed to create change based on the experiences and needs of young women, but claimed the actual change made was “superficial”.
As a result, about 90 per cent of the women surveyed had “no idea whatsoever” how they could actually influence issues that mattered to them in Australia.
“They could go and say a few general steps like, ‘maybe I’d post about it on social media'” Yadaz says, but most had never been taught how to create change, who to speak to, and who to actually work with.
“We haven’t created the systems or structures that an ordinary young woman can voice what they think and feel and want to change.”
Yadaz wants to see the establishment of a representative and research organisation for young women to better connect young women with Australian governments and actually give them the platform to influence changes to policy, laws, etc.
“[The organisation] should be doing regular data collection on young women – what are their challenges, what are their experiences, where they want – and then connecting this with the government,” she adds. 
“And as part of that, having genuine engagements where young women get to give inputs into policy design and creation.”
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Some critics will push back, calling Yadaz’s proposal “feminism gone too far”, but YWA’s research makes it clear that real change is needed.
While young women are speaking up about the gender-based issues they face, young men don’t necessarily believe their female counterparts are at a disadvantage.
Male respondents overwhelmingly reported that they view Australian society as being gender-equal (average score of 5.22 out of 10), and young women reported the opposite, (3.38 out of 10).
“This younger generation [of men] has mastered the ability to say all the right things, to sound progressive, inclusive, woke … but then when it comes to actual behaviours and actions, to do the complete opposite,” Yadaz says.
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Male respondents also rejected the notion that being male confers privilege in society (6.21 out of 10) despite evidence that Australian women face a range of disadvantages that men do not.
The WGEA currently reports the average gender pay gap as 21.7 per cent, meaning women make about $26,000 less than men over the course of a year.
Almost 30 per cent of young women reported to YWA that their educational experiences had been negatively affected by their gender, while a further almost 40 per cent reported their gender had limited their ability to achieve their professional goals.
Women were also more likely to report sexual harassment in the workplace, 22 per cent of Australian women have experienced sexual violence by the age of 15, according to the 2021-22 PSS, and nine in 10 young Aussie women feel that sexual assault is “inevitable”.
One in four women have also experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15, accounting for more than 2.3 million Aussies.
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All of this, Yadaz says, proves young women aren’t “exaggerating” their experiences and men need to step up, read the data, and believe women’s lived experiences. 
There’s a lot of work still to be done when it comes to gender disparity in Australia, but getting men onboard and establishing pathways for young women to influence the society they live in are the first steps towards a better future.
“We need to stop talking about the superficial stuff as much, and look more at the structures and systems that are meaning that this disadvantage continues to occur,” she says. 
“Because I think it’s even more dangerous to have this superficial narrative of change and then have young women suffering and struggling.”
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