generation they have internalised flexibility (Bradley and Davadason, 2007). The GLOBALIFE project also state that young people are the loses and have faced uncertainty, precarious and atypical forms of employment (Bucholz et al, 2009). There are areas of Britain where the young working class have struggled to retain a connection with the employed workforce (MacDonald and Marsh, 2005). Additionally, working classes may be more vulnerable to precarious work because during the last third of the twentieth century they lost the protection of trade unions and they have no one to defend them (Conley, 2002). Additionally, women are over represented when looking at precarious work (Cranford et al., 2003). In the US 33 per cent of women compared to 12 per cent of men (US Bureau of Labour statistics, 2009) are in precarious employment. These statistics support the gender wage gap, despite men and women having similar job titles and roles women still get paid less than men (Blau & Kahn, 2000). Additionally, Cranford et al. (2003) states women in these roles are less likely to be hired permanently and they also work less hours. Likewise, research has shown that women have less union support (Kalleburg et al., 2000). A combination of these factors show that women suffer from a greater risk of precarious work. An explanation, of why women may be more involved in precarious work is family detriments. Women’s jobs can be directly affected by family and her investment in the family, such as childcare (England, 1992). Due to traditional gender roles of a woman’s place being in the home, employers may internalise this and hire based on these stereotypes (Kaufman, 2002). Findings One in five UK workers, which is over 7 million people, are in precarious employment. This includes self-employment, temporary work and zero-hours contracts. The total number has increased by nearly 2 million, rising from 18.1 per cent of the workforce to 22.2 per cent. Companies such as Argos and Tesco use thousands of temporary workers, the taxi company Uber and currier firms such as Yodel and Hermes rely on 4.7 million self-employed workers. Additionally, a record number of UK workers are now on zero hour contracts with 910,000 people not guaranteed a minimum number of work hours a week but must make themselves available (ONS Labour Force Survey, 2016). Big companies such as McDonalds and Sports Direct offer these kinds of contracts. Beck’s (1992) de-standardisation of labour thesis suggests >