‘L-earning: rethinking young women’s working lives is a 3-year research study exploring young women’s early experiences of work – including work while studying – and how these experiences may contribute to gendered inequalities in later life. The study is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of the ‘Transforming Working Lives’ initiative – a broader scheme of research projects investigating changes in working lives and power in the workplace.

Drawing together expertise from Work and Employment Studies, Youth Studies and the Sociology of Education, this mixed methods study with women aged between 14 and 29 will provide a novel contribution to understandings of gendered inequalities through a distinct focus on the early life course experiences of working among childfree or pre-motherhood women – including work undertaken while studying.

The project will identify how early engagement in work – including part-time/weekend jobs, illicit and undeclared work, and work for family – develops knowledges, networks, relationships and values, establishing trajectories that may embed gendered patterns including occupational segregation.

To find out more about the study and research team, please explore our webpages.