About

Young Women's Trust is a feminist organisation working to achieve economic justice for young women.

Young Women’s Trust champions young women aged 18 to 30 on low or no pay.

We’re here to create a more equal world of work and raise young women’s incomes. We tackle sexism and misogyny, with and for anyone who has experienced this.

We offer young women free coaching, feedback on job applications and information to help them get where they want to be.

We bring together a network of thousands of young women to support each other, build their self-belief, and have their voices heard.

We work with young women and anyone who experiences misogyny and sexism to campaign for equality in the workplace.

And our research provides insight into what young women’s lives are really like, fuelling our campaigns for change.

Young Women’s Trust stands up for equality for young women in the UK. They do this by carrying out policy research, campaigning for change and reaching out to young women across the UK, helping them get skills and opportunities to speak truth to power. They hold women at the heart of what they do and want to get women’s experiences understood by the government.
Yogi, Advisory Panel member

A group of young women pose for the camera on a sunny day

How we work with young women

Young women are at the centre of the charity’s work: leading, designing and participating.

Our Young Women’s Advisory Panel is a group of 30 young women who have experience of living on low or no pay. They guide Young Women’s Trust’s work by taking part in discussions, interviewing new staff, talking to the media and writing for our blog.

Find out more about the Advisory Panel

Support us

Just £25 could provide a young woman with detailed, supportive feedback on her CV and job application, giving her the best chance of securing a job interview.

Donate today

Our vision and purpose

Our vision is a world where young women are valued, can make choices and look forward to a fairer financial future.

Our purpose is to create an equal world of work and raise young women’s incomes.

Read about our values and principles

Our goals

Our ultimate goal is to close the income gap between young women and young men.

To lay the foundations for this, we are focusing on two key goals:

Visibility, voice and power
A more equal world of work

The first goal influences the second: we believe that giving greater visibility, voice and power to young women is an essential first step towards a more equal world of work.

Our impact

We have supported 19,000 young women with coaching and job application feedback since we launched our Work It Out service in 2014.

54% of people who had coaching, and 56% who had had feedback said they had a new job or internship, were in training, volunteering or self-employed within 6 months.

56% of those who used our coaching and feedback services said their income had increased a year later.

We have built a community of more than 10,000 young women and people of marginalised genders across our networks who have opportunities to be involved and have their say.

Since our Research Centre was established in 2021, we have worked with 28 peer researchers to publish two annual ‘state of the nation’ surveys of more than 8,000 young women, as well as research into young women’s experiences of the benefits system, missing data, and the power of peer research.

The results of our most recent survey in 2022 revealed the difficulties young women in particular are facing, especially during the cost of living crisis. We took action by launching the #CostingOurFutures campaign so that young women’s voices could be heard in Parliament.

We hope you’ll continue to support us this year as we double our efforts to create change.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

We know that different groups of young women experience inequalities in different ways. Factors such as ethnicity, disability and socio-economic status create specific experiences of discrimination and come together to compound economic inequality for young women.

Intersectionality is at the core of our strategy. We have identified race equity and antiracism as a particular priority for us.

Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion action plan underpins our organisational strategy, focusing on:

Organisational culture
Diversity within staff team and board
The young women we engage with
Influencing

Gender diversity

We are here to create a world where young women are valued, have choices and can look forward to a fairer financial future. We tackle sexism and misogyny, with and for anyone who has experienced this – including trans women and non-binary people.

We include and welcome all young women, including trans women, in all aspects of our work. If you identify as non-binary and are comfortable being supported by a women’s service, or being involved in a women’s campaigning organisation, we are happy to help you and welcome you into our campaigns.

Our history

Young Women’s Trust started its journey as part of the YWCA, which was founded in 1855. It was rebranded as non-religious organisation Platform 51 before becoming Young Women’s Trust in 2013.

Media centre

Visit our Media Centre, where you can find our latest media releases and search our news archive.