Understanding the Unique Set of Challenges Early Career Women Face
By Tanya Andrews, Founder of Trellis Collective
When we talk about the barriers to gender equality in male-dominated industries, most of the attention tends to focus on mid-career women, those returning from maternity leave, those struggling to break into senior leadership, those battling invisible ceilings and still citing ‘imposter syndrome’ as a key experience.
And while those are real and significant challenges, they are only part of the story.
The reality is that early career women are navigating one of the most complex, under-appreciated, and overlooked challenges in the entire gender equality conversation. One that, if left unaddressed, impacts the whole pipeline. As I outlined in my previous article.
→ if they leave in the first 5 years they’re not there to move into and through mid-snr management
→ without early development of key confidence, communication and self-advocacy skills they are less likely to proactively pursue opportunities to progress
→ (limited data available!) but our hypothesis is that the more connected and valued women feel early on the higher the likelihood they have to be motivated to return to work
I’m not suggesting it’s all on the women, this is a broad and complex systemic issue. But it is a key reason why we focus on this career stage at Trellis: because getting it right here means building a solid foundation for everything that comes after.
The Seven Spokes of Challenge
The very nature of being early in a career already brings uncertainty and self-doubt, but layering on gender minority status in a male-dominated workplace creates an entirely different level of complexity. Let’s break them down:
1. Age / Youth
They’re still developing their professional identity, trying to figure out how to show up at work, and navigating the gap between their qualifications and their confidence. Age-related bias can play a role here too, young women are often perceived as less capable or experienced by default.
2. Inexperience
This group is learning how to self-manage, take initiative, and understand unspoken norms, often for the very first time. Without guidance, this learning curve can feel steep, and the fear of making mistakes or being seen as “unprofessional” becomes a barrier to full participation.
3. New to the World of Work
The workplace comes with a set of expectations and norms that aren’t written down. How to write a professional email, how to speak up in meetings, how to build relationships with managers, these are skills that are rarely taught but widely expected.
4. Post-COVID Landscape
Many of today’s early career women entered the workforce during or shortly after the pandemic. That means remote onboarding, fewer in-person mentoring moments, and a disruption of the traditional early career experience. This has left gaps in development that are still being navigated.
5. Gen Z
This generation brings different expectations around purpose, feedback, and work-life integration. While that can be a strength, it also means their motivations and communication styles don’t always align with existing workplace culture, leading to misunderstandings or misjudgments.
6. Being a Minority
It’s hard to feel confident when you rarely see anyone who looks like you in leadership, or even in your own team. That constant awareness of being “the only” creates pressure to perform perfectly, avoid mistakes, and stay quiet rather than stand out. Over time, that pressure erodes confidence, initiative, and belonging.
7. Gender
Even in organisations that have strong DEI commitments, unconscious bias still shapes early experiences. Women are repeatedly assigned softer work, passed over for stretch opportunities, or given feedback that is vague and less actionable. They often receive less informal coaching or exposure to influential networks, all of which matter deeply in those formative years.
The Straw That Breaks the Back
Each of these challenges alone is manageable. But stacking them together, especially the last two: can be the breaking point. When early career women lack support, clear pathways, visible role models, and a sense of connection, purpose, and value, they disengage. And when they disengage, they leave.
This is exactly why we focus on this stage of career development at Trellis. Because if we get this part of the pipeline right, we don’t just retain more women, we set them up for success, ensuring stronger, more diverse leadership in the future.
It’s easy to focus on the mid-career pinch points: maternity leave, invisible ceilings, and the infamous “imposter syndrome.” But if we wait until those moments to act, we may win the battle but we’ll lose the war. The best chance we have to shift the pipeline is to start early, build strong foundations, and make sure early career women aren’t just surviving, they’re thriving.