Women in Railway Careers

[whole diary]

[Cynthia]

If you're fed up with rushing around doing Christmassy stuff, you could sit down with a cup of coffee and answer a question for me!

It occurred to me that there still does not appear to be a huge number of women working on the railways.  I'm thinking less in terms of the traditional type of female roles of booking clerks, canteen workers etc, more the 'action' end, like engine drivers, linesmen etc.  Also, there appears to be many more men than women on this forum, if the user names are anything to go by.

Being a bit of a feminist I have watched with glee, (and a degree of envy)over the years, as women increasingly went into careers previously male dominated.

If my statement in the second paragraph here is correct, I wonder why this is?  Someone may be able to provide me with some information to either contradict my statement, or explain why the drift into railways by women has been slower than in other trraditional male roles?

[John R]

An interesting question, and quite thought provoking.

There are a lot of female Train Managers, and I see quite a few drivers as well. So maybe not as heavily dominated as you might think, particularly amongst more recent recruits. One thing to note is that for many people a job on the railway is one for life, so although society is changing, the workforce will still be heavily made up of those recruited in a generation when things were different. Thus overall change will be slower than in other industries where turnover is greater.

I suspect one underlying reason is that shift work does not lend itself to those returning to work post maternity. Childcare arrangements only tend to be available during the day, so maybe more tricky to balance?



 

[bobm]

There are a number of Train Managers I know who are on what are termed "domestic links" - where their shifts are family friendly.  It means they work only certain days a week or hours of the day.  It recognises that a lot of staff want to keep their hand in while bringing up children and perhaps return full time once that becomes possible.

[Network SouthEast]

Years ago, a train company did a recruitment campaign for train drivers, but exclusively advertised in women's magazines.

The result? The same ratio of male and female candidates applying as usual. I was told that feedback from male candidates was that the vacancies had been seen by female partners/relatives/friends and forward on, as opposed to the females taking any particular interest.

I just think that women in general aren't interested in being train drivers or even the railway in general. As a train driver, I think I could count on one hand the number of female train spotters I've ever seen.

The railway is very welcoming to female employees. They have exactly the same T&Cs and pay as their male colleagues, and how many other industries can boast that?

It's like the question as to why there are so few males as primary school teachers or working in care homes. I think it simply doesn't appeal to men! Equality doesn't have to mean being 50/50 for the sake of it.

[JayMac]

Certainly plenty of female Train Managers/Conductors/Guards out there. See them on a regular basis. Catering staff in buffets (including the Travelling Chefs) and on trolleys is probably close to a 50/50 split and there may even be greater percentage of female.

Female drivers are becoming more common, although this is still very much a male preserve.

Female permanent way staff ('linesmen') are very few and far between. This isn't unique to the rail industry though. Engineering and manual labour jobs rarely attract female applicants.

And just as an anecdote. On my most recent trip on my local line, all three staff (driver, conductor, ticket examiner) were female.

They have exactly the same T&Cs and pay as their male colleagues, and how many other industries can boast that?

All of them I hope. Otherwise they are breaking the law.

I appreciate that proving, as a female, that you have worse pay and conditions isn't always easy.

[SandTEngineer]

In one of the railway S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) design offices I worked in with about 35 employees the proportion of females to males was about 50/50 (and that was in the mid-1980s)

Throughout my long (perhaps too long) career I have always tried to encourage females to work in the S&T discipline, and even recently have had some minor success with that as my Daughter now works in a design office

[bobm]

On a recent Pullman Restaurant I travelled on, all the staff were ladies except the chef!

[JayMac]

That'd be the one where we had Caroline as Team Leader wouldn't it?

[bobm]

Indeed - and another excellent meal it was too!

[Electric train]

In projects we have quite a few women mostly as project managers, commercial mangers etc there are a number of female project engineers.  The senior engineer for the refurbishing there original structure of Blackfriars Bridge was female.  

Within the routes I can think of a couple of the senior engineers who are female.

There are not enough though, the female perspective on engineering is different to us males the mix of the two often produces excellent engineering.

[Cynthia]

Thank you all very much for your interest and information!   

Electric Train, your fascinating comment that women think differently to men in terms of engineering has me intrigued.  As it would be said on an A-Level exam paper - 'Discuss!

I was interested to read about the railway career adverts appearing in womens' magazines, too.  But I don't agree that it's the nature of the work that discourages women from working in the 'outdoor' or physical end of the railways.  After all, there are lots more women now working in farming, landscape gardening, as HGV drivers and in the construction industry, so we're not all worried about messing up our hair and breaking fingernails!

I don't necessarily think it's down to awkward shift patterns turning women away either; I was a nurse for most of my working life, the hours in that job are about as unsocial as they come; you just find ways of jiggling childcare around them.

I entirely agree that we don't need to be aiming for a 50/50 split between male/female working opportunities.  Are there jobs that certain genders dislike???  Many more men now are going into the care sector as well as the fashion/designing/sewing industries.

[johoare]

Not the railways but I work in IT (in the retail sector). I have always been in the minority in my team and quite often the only female 

[Cynthia]

   That's a bit odd then, johoare?  I thought there were a lot more women now working in IT?

[johoare]

Hopefully it is starting to change then..

[Electric train]

Electric Train, your fascinating comment that women think differently to men in terms of engineering has me intrigued.  As it would be said on an A-Level exam paper - 'Discuss!

Female engineers don't think any differently than their male counterparts, we all have different thinking; engineering is often wrapped up in rules, regulations, guides and processes, what female engineers do bring is a different perspective to the creative side and or problem solving of the engineering in a project.