Nina Dillon Britton was only 16 when she got a harsh lesson in gender discrimination and sexual harassment while competing against male students in a prestigious debating contest.
"My descriptor was, 'The chick with the tits'," she recalled. "There was one instance where I had to get on my knees to fill up my water bottle and the guys would say, 'I bet she's done that before'. Then you would have to go back in the room and argue your case in the competition. I felt like the smallest person in the world."
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Sex discrimination commissioner's priorities
Kate Jenkins reveals she never thought in 2016, there'd be a need for a sex discrimination commissioner and sets an agenda in her first week in the role. Courtesy ABC News 24.
Now 19 and in the first year of an arts/law degree at the University of Sydney, the Drummoyne student believes her male peers relied on sexist remarks to gain a competitive edge.
"This was a group of nerdy little kids but the ones who wanted to get ahead knew that putting down young women was one way to do that," she said.
"It quickly became clear to me that if you are in a competitive situation there are ways in which young women will be undermined through low level sexual harassment and gender discrimination. That's hard when you are young and you are learning how to back yourself and what you can do to deflect discrimination."
Gender discrimination among young people is alarmingly common, according to new research from Mission Australia.
The 22,000 teenagers, aged from 15 to 19, surveyed for Mission Australia's annual youth report identified discrimination, alcohol and drugs and mental health as among the top issues facing young Australians.
One in four said they had suffered discrimination in the past 12 months and half said they had witnessed others being subjected to unfair treatment.
Gender was the most often cited reason for discrimination, followed by race or cultural background and age. The study found female respondents were much more likely to report gender discrimination than males.
The findings come after a Fairfax Media investigation uncovered widespread gender discrimination in the workplace and an analysis of the gender pay gap by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency showed working women earn almost $27,000 less than men.
Chief executive of Mission Australia Catherine Yeomans said calling out discrimination was a wider community responsibility.
"These levels are simply unacceptable and we must ask ourselves what we can all do to change these results," she said.
"Political and social leadership is required to help change some of those pervasive attitudes. We have to challenge stereotypes and explicit discrimination when we see it. And this needs to be addressed by governments, businesses, sports and other institutions as well as in the media and at schools."
Ms Yeomans said high levels of concern about mental health among young people suggested a need for improved services.
"We see mental health concerns reflected at a personal level with stress at school, study problems and body image the top three issues," she said.
"We need a co-ordinated, comprehensive and cohesive national plan to ensure we are delivering the right programs to the young people who need them most.
"We also need to question how early we start providing mental health services. Some of our staff are seeing children as young as eight with suicidal thoughts and there is often limited access to the necessary supports."