We're better at childcare than jobs, say one in three young women: Study also finds third of under-30s think it is irresponsible to work while caring for young children

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Young women are turning against the feminist aspirations of their mothers’ generation, a poll suggests.

It found that women under 30 are much more likely than their elders to believe girls are more suited than boys to jobs as nurses or carers.

They are less likely to think that girls are as just as capable as boys at traditionally masculine trades such as being an electrician or a plumber.

Women under 30 are much more likely than their elders to believe girls are more suited than boys to jobs as nurses or carers, a new study has found

And they are far more willing to condemn mothers who go out to work while their children are young. More than a third of them think women are better at caring for children than doing paid jobs.

The apparent switch back to old-fashioned values among younger women was detected in a survey by the Young Women’s Trust, a charity headed by a former Labour pollster which strives to get young women into well-paid work.

It greeted the findings of its poll with dismay in a report which noted that ‘young women, in stark contrast to their mother’s generation, think that many traditional male roles and professions are out of their reach.’

The report added: ‘For young women, the clock is being turned back on the progress made in the 20th century for equal opportunities for women.’

But one traditionalist analyst said the findings showed young women have ‘escaped the identikit straitjacket of feminism’ and many continue to believe that raising a family is a vital role at which women are best.

The poll was carried out by the Young Women’s Trust at a time when it is trying to revive its fortunes after four troubled years.

The organisation existed for more than 150 years as the Young Women’s Christian Association, before deciding in 2011 that the name no longer represented its beliefs.

It briefly became known as Platform 51, and suffered heavy financial losses before adopting its current name and closing down or passing on to other charities many of its operations.

Currently headed by Deborah Mattinson, who was polling adviser to Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the trust commissioned the survey of nearly 2,700 people from ComRes this autumn.

The poll found that only 13 per cent of women of 31 and over thought that young females were more suited than young men to careers as nurses. But the figure jumped to 33 per cent among women of 30 and under.

The same proportion - 13 per cent - of older women thought females made better care workers than men. Among women of 30 and under, the level rose to 31 per cent.

Some 37 per cent of the younger women thought females were better at caring for children than working for a living, against only 32 per cent of those over 30.

Fewer than one in five older women, 18 per cent, thought it irresponsible for a woman to work if she has young children, but 29 per cent of under-30s thought so.

The charity’s report said nearly nine out of 10 older women thought working as an IT technician was a job for either a girl or a boy, but fewer than two-thirds of the younger group did so.

It cited trades including electrician, plumber and construction worker and found that ‘in relation to every one of these occupations older women were much more likely to say the role was equally suitable for men and women.’

The organisation blamed bias at work for encouraging conservative thinking among the young. ‘Young women’s traditional views are associated with the stubbornly gendered nature of training and work, limiting and restricting the opportunities for young women,’ it said.

The report added: ‘Is this really the 21st century? It appears that the equality agenda has been lost and young women are unable to dream, as their predecessors were able to. Maybe the reality of their lives has thwarted their expectations.’

But other commentators said the apparent swing of opinion showed that young women were thinking for themselves.

Academic Belinda Brown, a fellow of the Young Foundation, said: ‘These young women, it appears, have escaped the identikit straitjacket of feminism and taken the view that men and women are different and are therefore not equally suited to the roles of construction worker, ICT technician, plumber, carer or nurse.

She said the view of the Young Women’s Trust was to ‘treat them as hapless muppets whose views are “associated with the stubbornly gendered nature of training and work, limiting and restricting the opportunities for young women”. These young women are actually shaping the world around them and it is their views and preferences that keep firmly in place the gendered nature of training and work.’

The findings come amid continuing efforts by traditionalist activists in the Tory party to persuade ministers to ease the tax burden on stay-at-home mothers and to cut the £6 billion-a-year childcare subsidies for working mothers.

Laura Perrins, co-editor of the Conservative Woman website, said: ‘This survey shows, to the shock of the group who commissioned it, that despite years of feminist propaganda many young women still value caring and raising their family themselves over paid work.

‘The Government should stop punishing families who care for their children at home, saving the taxpayer that expense.’