What's the State of Young Women in the Workplace? Not so good

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 30% of young American women want to be entrepreneurs and work for themselves instead of working for a company, according to a survey of 1,050 women aged 18 to 35.

At the same time, 77% say that being "too young" has hurt their ability to get a job interview or get hired, and many keep their jobs just to pay off college debt, according to the survey commissioned by the 1,000 Dreams Fund, a national scholarship program for young women, and Recruiter.com, an online global recruiting career service.

Workplace bullying primarily by other women and sexism has affected about 20% of young women, too.

The survey highlights challenges facing young women in the workplace and could affect companies' attempts to increase diversity and lure Gen Z and Millennial women, said Christie Garton, founder of the 1,000 Dreams Fund.

"A growing number of companies say they want more diversity in their ranks with more females in key leadership roles. That is the good news. However, if young female employees aren't being properly supported in the early stages of their careers, they will seek other paths like entrepreneurship," Garton explained.

"Diversity is now one of the primary elements that candidates look for when seeking out great companies to work with. If young women continue to unfairly face challenges as a result of their age and gender in their careers, then employers will find it difficult to hire nearly anyone for their teams. We need to change the conditions within which young women work once and for all – which is exactly what the 1,000 Dreams Fund is achieving," says Miles Jennings, CEO and Founder of Recruiter.com.

The survey, conducted by Toluna Quicksurveys, is part of a larger series of reports the 1,000 Dreams Fund will release this fall called #StateofTheGirl, which is aimed at uncovering the biggest challenges facing young women in the U.S. today. Additional topics the series will report on this fall include:

• State of young women's politics (to be released in early November 2016)
• State of young women's finances (released in August 2016)

ADDITIONAL SURVEY FINDINGS

The Entrepreneurial Spirit is Strong

• More than a third (31%) consider their dream job to be working for themselves at their own company

Young Women have Workplace Woes

• 21% have been the victim of sexism in the workplace
• 20% have been the victim of workplace bullying (more so from other women! 18% vs. 12%)
• 77% say that being too young has hindered their ability to get an interview or employment

It Ain't (All) About the Money

• While 22% chose their major to make money, more than half (58%) chose their major to follow their dream
• 32% would or have taken a job for 5 years JUST to pay off college debt

Not Enough Prep Work

• Only 25% of respondents are "very confident" in their interviewing skills. So three-quarters are not
• Having your resume ready to go at all times is very important, but more than half (57%) only update their resume when on the hunt for a new job

The full survey report is available upon request. To see all the findings, please contact DavEllePR at [email protected] or at 917-370-6016.

About the 1,000 Dreams Fund:
The 1,000 Dreams Fund (1DF) is a national scholarship fund for American girls in high school and college. The 1DF believes that big expenses should never stand in the way of big dreams. Since its launch in 2015, over $40,000 in funding has been granted to talented young women in need, helping them pay for the "extras" in school like study abroad, tech devices for the classroom and travel to conferences and seminars. 1DF has been featured in NBCNews.com, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Entrepreneur, TODAY, etc. To learn more about their work, visit http://1000dreamsfund.org/.

About Recruiter.com:
Recruiter.com, Inc., is an online global recruiting service that offers an industry-leading job market technology platform. With a highly engaged membership base, Recruiter.com works with hundreds of clients and employers and manages a social media following of more than 4.4 million people. Recruiter.com was voted Top Tech Company to Watch in 2014 by the Connecticut Technology Council, cited as one of the Top 35 Most Influential Career Sites in 2014 by Forbes and listed by Inc. as one of the 9 Best Websites for Finding Top Talent. The career, HR, and recruiting experts of Recruiter.com have been cited and featured in hundreds of sites and publications, including: Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Mashable, Business Insider, Inc., Fox Small Business, Time, The Next Web, Yahoo Small Business, US News, Business2Community, Bloomberg and SmartBrief. Visit https://www.recruiter.com or follow Recruiter on Twitter @RecruiterDotCom.

About Toluna Quicksurveys:
This survey was run with SmartSelect™, a respondent selection methodology used to promote sample representativeness. SmartSelect relies on statistical matching rather than probability sampling and selects respondents based on demographic, attitudinal and behavioral characteristics that match those of the target population. SmartSelect weights on age, gender, region, ethnicity, race and education. To learn more, please visit: https://www.quicksurveys.com/.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161003/414363-INFO 

SOURCE 1,000 Dreams Fund