New project focused on tackling young mothers’ labour market inequality

We’re excited to launch our new project in partnership with Save the Children. We’ll be working together to deliver a two-year project focused on understanding and addressing the barriers young mothers face in the labour market, particularly with regards to in-work poverty and sustaining fair work. We’re delighted to be supported by The Robertson Trust, who have awarded funding under their Work Pathways theme to enable this work. 

Why this project? 

“The project is important for women’s rights, more specifically for giving vulnerable young women a voice.” - Member of the Mums’ Project Advisers Group 

Young mothers are among the most marginalised in the labour market. They’re less likely to be paid the Real Living Wage, more likely to be in part-time, insecure work, and more vulnerable to income volatility. Systemic influencers including gender norms, men’s violence, disability discrimination, and racism also shape young mothers’ workplace experiences. Their gendered experiences as women in the labour market are compounded by harmful stigma surrounding young mothers, further restricting access to fair work.  

The lack of fair work for young mothers and their starkly higher levels of in-work poverty is an economic injustice that not only affects their financial and mental wellbeing but also has longer-term consequences for them and their children. Families with a mother aged under 25 are a priority group for the Scottish Government in tackling child poverty, with 55% of children in these families experiencing relative poverty. Despite this, young mothers are routinely invisible in policy responses and employer efforts to improve job quality. The absence of evidence on young mothers’ experiences is a key issue which this work aims to address. A strong evidence base is needed to drive action from policymakers, and employers need tailored support to enable them to develop employment practice that challenges the barriers young mothers face. 

What will the project involve? 

Two groups have been convened to ensure that lived and learned experience shape the direction of the project. 

1. Mums’ Project Advisers Group – consisting of 8 young mothers from across Scotland with experience of low income and/or in-work poverty. The ambition is to co-produce as much of the project as possible with them, including research design and analysis, recommendation development, influencing and creative outputs. Save the Children are leading work with this group. 

2. Stakeholder Advisory Group – consisting of representatives from 8 organisations with expertise relevant to young mothers’ employment and tackling in-work poverty. Members of this group include: One Parent Families Scotland, Young Women’s Movement, Poverty Alliance, STUC, Scottish Women’s Aid, Home Start, University of West of Scotland, and Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights. 

The project, which began in June 2025, is currently in its first phase – gathering evidence on young mothers’ labour market experiences and employer attitudes. This research phase is expected to last until early 2026. In phase two:  

• Research findings will inform a series of recommendations for Scottish Government, public bodies and employers.  
• We’ll use these recommendations to shape targeted advocacy on the actions needed to increase young mothers’ access to good quality work. 
• Employers will play a key role in developing and testing resources that enable organisations to build workplaces that support young mothers to reach their full potential. 
• Young mothers will work with us to develop a campaign to raise awareness of their employment rights.  

“This work is a movement towards equity, dignity and opportunity…led by young mums and backed by lived experience.” - Member of the Mums’ Project Advisers Group 

Recent activity and what comes next 

The Mums’ Project Advisers Group recently had their first meeting. The day was a fantastic opportunity for members to meet each other and the project team. It also served as an introduction to the project and the ways members could shape elements such as research design, influencing policymakers, and campaign development. 

“Changing the narrative of assumptions others have of young mums is such an important role to me. I hope this project can support in that.” - Member of the Mums’ Project Advisers Group 

As our research gets underway over the coming months, we look forward to developing our understanding of young mothers’ labour market experiences and the changes required to address the barriers they face. This partnership project will help to ensure that lived experience drives our approach to improving job quality and influencing meaningful change for young mothers. 

We hope to be able to share our learning so far in early 2026. You’ll be able to find updates on the project here on the Close the Gap blog.