RAILWAYWOMEN
AROUND THE WORLD
A selection of press cuttings







USA: RAILWAY INVENTIONS, 1870-81

In 1870, Eliza Murfey patented 16 devices for improving the packing of journals and bearings for railroad-car axles. These packings were used to lubricate the axles with oil, which reduced derailments caused by seized axles and bearings. In 1879, Mary Walton developed a method of deflecting smoke stack emissions through water tanks and later adapted the system for use on locomotives. In the 1880s, many cities developed a mass transit system using noisy elevated trains. To reduce the noise, Mary Walton invented a sound-dampening system that cradled the track in a wooden box lined with cotton and then filled with sand. She received a patent for the system on February 8, 1881, and later sold the rights to the Metropolitan Railroad of New York City. Other inventions by women included a railway crossing gate by Mary I. Riggin and several patents for the construction of railway tracks by Catherine L. Gibbon.

US DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION






USA: STATION AGENT/TELEGRAPHERS, 1897

At stations 'where the business has increased enough to warrant the employment of an assistant, a young woman to do the telegraphing is frequently the first helper employed', said B.B. Adams, editor of the Railroad Gazette in 1897. Women agents and operators became so common that 'one has ceased to have even a feeling of surprise at seeing them there', remarked Frances Willard. The 1901 Official List of Officers, Agents and Stations of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company listed 19 female station and ticket agents - about 4 % of the total.

WWW.MINDSPRING.COM




USA: TELEGRAPHER 1918-1978

Mrs. Mary Aileen Norton Evans began working for the Western Pacific Railroad in 1918 and retired in 1978 after sixty years of service. She was issued a very simple document stating, 'The Western Pacific Railroad Company extends best wishes to Mary N. Evans upon the occasion of her retirement from the services of this Railroad. In Testimony Whereof we are privileged to bestow this Certificate of Appreciation of her many years of service and we are hopeful that her active interest in Western Pacific will long continue.' It was signed by F. P. Whitman, President. Mary was one of the first women telegraphers, and the youngest at age 18, to work for the WPRR.

Researched by Pansilee Larsen, Curator,
North Central Nevada Historical Society, Humboldt County Museum.




USA: STATION AGENTS

The life of a country depot agent was interesting. The small towns revolved around the activities of the railroad along with those of the post offices. Almost everyone in the community sooner or later did some type of business with the station agent. Often it involved rail or bus tickets, telegrams, small packages as well as carloads being shipped or received. In many of the small towns the depot had only one person employed, this was the agent. He or she usually opened the depot at 700 or 800 AM daily except Sunday, the first thing he or she did was to let the train dispatcher know s/he was there. He or she then cleaned the depot. If it was cold weather he or she built a fire in the coal stove. Next he or she checked the cars on various track. After checking the yard for cars, the agent made out a car report showing the location, time of arrival and other information on each car.

During the day trains would pass the station and the agent would go outside and watch them by, looking for things that would be a safety hazard to the train such as hot axleboxes, equipment dragging, brakes sticking, etc. If it was unsafe he or she would flag the train as the caboose passed the depot, otherwise the agent would give an OK sign ("highball") and then tell the train dispatcher what time the train passed his station and if anything was wrong. Many times the train dispatcher would issue train orders for the passing train and the depot agent would copy them and hand them up to the train with a device called a train order hoop, later a modified form of a hoop (shaped like a Y ) with a string holding the orders. When train orders were copied and held for a train, the train order semaphore would be displayed in stop position indicating to the train that train orders were to be delivered and that the train could not pass without them. The agent or telegrapher had other duties, such as making out freight reports, waybills, bills of lading, ticket sells and reports, copying Western Union telegrams in Morse code, Railway Express Agency shipments. People in those days shipped and received almost everything by rail, pigs, chickens, sheep, cattle, mules, cotton, cottonseed, logs, lumber, gravel, automobiles, fertilizer, dry goods, groceries. Customers were constantly in and out of the depots. Travel was by rail except for short distances when buses were used.




USA: COTTON BELT HEROINE OF 1904 RECALLED

Usually when we think of railroads and their early builders we picture men; burley men, robust and strong and with the intestinal fortitude to face and overcome any odds that circumstances and the elements could stack against them. But . . . there were women, too. Recorded in the pages of the past is the name of Camilla Hough (pronounced Huff), who served for a time as agent-telegrapher at Garland City, Arkansas. Miss Hough, now Mrs. Conklin, was raised at Garland City where her father, the late Dr. C. L Hough, was our company's agent. Fascinated by the roar of passing trains, the bustling activity of the station and the rhythmic clicking of the telegraph key, she spent much time in her dad's office where she became a proficient operator while still in her early teens. Routed from bed late one night, Camilla and her father were horrified to see smoke pouring from around the doors and windows of the depot building. Dressing hurriedly, they dashed from their nearby home to the station office to save its contents if they could. By the time of their arrival the fire was well underway and . . . but let's read the story as it was reported in the July, 1904, issue of the Express Gazette, one of the pioneer publications of the transportation industry:

The annals of express history are filled with acts of bravery on the part of employes generally whenever the occasion has arisen of that calm judgment and deliberate courage which betokens true heroism. This noble spirit of fidelity to duty has not only characterized the men in the service, but, as was evidenced by a recent incident, has also imbued their families. The Express Gazette takes great pleasure in adding to its roll of honor Miss Camilla Hough, the young daughter of Agent C. L. Hough of the Cotton Belt at Garland City, Arkansas, served by the Pacific Express Co.

On the night of June 11, last, when the office at that point caught fire, Miss Hough rendered her father, the railroad and the express company, very valuable assistance in saving on-hand express matter and office records. During the time the depot was on fire, and by the light made by the already flaming interior, Miss Hough worked the combination of the safe and managed to remove the contents, quiet an amount of cash, railroad tickets, money orders, etc. and saved them.

If courage 'under fire' is eligibility for the Railroad Hall of Fame, this lady gets our vote. After her father, a graduate of Tulane University at New Orleans, ad established himself with a full-time medical practice at Garland City, Miss Hough succeeded him as agent on June 3, 1911. Though she left our company early in 1912 to settle with her family in Helena, Arkansas, where she still resides, she had spent about ten years with the Cotton Belt in addition to her early years as an unpaid apprentice.

COTTON BELT NEWS, APRIL, 1958




AN AUSTRALIAN GATEKEEPER, 1914

A tragic accident occurred at the Balcombe Road railway crossing at Mentone on March 14, 1914. Mrs Jessie Ann Robinson, the 55-year-old gatekeeper was run down by a train and instantly killed. Her head was severed from her body. The report in the local newspaper said the employees of the Colonial Ammunition Company had been attending a picnic. It was about 9 o'clock when they were returning home. Part of the group had already left when a second special train arrived at the platform for trains to Mordialloc. It had to be shunted to the up line by passing over the crossing. Before it returned from the shunt a motor car and horse and cart arrived wishing to cross. Mrs Robinson thinking there was time to let them pass before the train returned opened the gates. Unfortunately she was wrong. The train returned, led by the guards van, while Mrs Robinson was attempting to close the gates after the vehicles had passed safely through. The train crashed through the gates knocking Mrs Robinson down.

After twenty-four years of service at this crossing she had received notice of a move to another set of gates at the other end of the station. The Balcombe gates were to be connected to a new signal box constructed at the end of the platform for trains to Mordialloc from where they would be opened and closed. This was the last week of Mrs Robinson's duty at Balcombe Road. Already she had packed some of her furniture in anticipation of the move. Dr R. Cole, the Coroner, found that her death was by misadventure but was critical of the performance of the guard of the train and the signalman. He believed they should have seen that the gates were closed against the train, although he agreed there was insufficient evidence to find them guilty of manslaughter. The Coroner was also critical of the action of the Railway Department in putting a woman in charge of these heavy gates 'for seven hours on and during the busiest part of the day … for four and sixpence per day.' He thought that the job was more appropriate for a man. Mrs Robinson was a widow with three married children at the time of her death.

Her husband who had been employed as a guard in the railways was killed in an accident at Bendigo. After his death she was given the gatekeeper position at Mentone. It was a policy of the railway commissioners to find suitable positions for the family of deceased employees. As Chief Commissioner of the Railways, Mr W. Fitzpatrick, was reported to say, 'In many cases, if the Commissioners had not extended consideration, poor women and families would have been thrown out into the world to struggle for existence outside the service…It is not out of desire for economy that the Commissioners employ women at gates.' Mrs Robinson, the newspaper reported, was a much-admired member of the Mentone community for her genial attention to the job of opening and closing the gates for a period of twenty-four years. 'She invariably had a pleasant word for every traveller and did not keep them waiting any longer than necessary.' A reporter noted that these qualities were not possessed by a large number of gatekeepers and were never likely to be. A committee was formed to collect subscriptions for a suitable memorial. Receipts totalled £35-5-6 including a £5 donation from the Railway Commissioners. This money was used to purchase a memorial tablet that was erected over her grave and that of her husband, at the Williamstown Cemetery. The cost was £30-9-0 leaving the committee to dispose of the balance.

GRAHAM J WHITEHEAD KINGSTON, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA




EIRE: TERESA CAREY

The country's first female train driver took to the rails today. Teresa Carey from Tralee has spent the past year training to be a locomotive driver. She took control of the 9.05am passenger train from Cork to Dublin. Teresa joined Iarnród Éireann as a catering assistant in 1994 and worked her way up as a gatekeeper and train guard before beginning locomotive driver training in January of last year.

EIRE, MAY 16, 2002




AUSTRALIA: JANET OAKDEN, FIRST WOMAN TRAIN DRIVER, 1976

'Well, I mean, I like locomotives so much that I think it's a worthwhile career. Maybe I'm just a bit more persistent than the others. It just never occurred to give up, and certainly I won't give up now'. (Interviewer) 'Do you think that if you get in, that other women will follow, there'll be hordes of women, or have you had any indication from other women?' 'I've had several who said that they would like to be drivers and indeed they've said there've been a couple who want to be guards and even conductors, but they're just not game to take on a two year fight like I have done. It's been quite an emotional bashing as you can understand. They're not game to take on the fight'.

THE COMING OUT SHOW, 1976 ABC RADIO.




RAILWAYWOMEN IN ZAMBIA, 1990S

Women railway workers in Zambia have been tackling the problem of sexual harassment, which frequently goes unreported or is not taken seriously by employees, union representatives or managers. The Railway Workers Union of Zambia has embarked on a vigorous campaign of raising awareness and persuading employers to implement a code of conduct on sexual harassment. Up to now, women have not been well represented at most of our union seminars and hence lack exposure and experience in the union's decision making bodies. We strongly support the resolutions of the ITF Women's Committee that 30 per cent of delegates must consist of women at all seminars. Similarly, women are rarely considered for training opportunities and promotion in Zambia. The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions has recently come up with a policy for equal training opportunities and promotion for all employees in the country.

GERTRUDE CHULU BWALYA, ,br />COUNTRY CO-ORDINATOR, RAILWAY WORKERS' UNION OF ZAMBIA.




AUSTRALIA: ONE-TRACK THINKING ONLY
WHEN IT COMES TO HIRING RAILWAY STAFF, 2004

Part of the problem with the train system is down to a culture of keeping out diversity, [writes Wendy McCarthy, chancellor of the University of Canberra.] While having no contemporary inside knowledge, in 1997 my company, Women's Business, was asked to assist CityRail in its stated ambition to achieve a 50 per cent intake of women in train-crew training courses. The CEO had expressed his concern that despite a lot of positive equal employment opportunity work over more than a decade there were few women applying to be part of the train crew, which included drivers, signalling, guards and station assistants. The initial response expressed to me when I began working there was that 'he [the CEO] has no chance of getting 50 per cent women on train crews because we won't do it'. It wasn't stated with anger, just certainty. So I spent time listening and talking and trying to understand the reasons for such strong opinions after a decade or more of EEO.

My conclusion is it's about the culture. If you are not part of the prevailing group, you are aberrant and it is hard to get in. The culture is inward-looking and traditional. Many people I spoke with had family histories with the rail service with up to three generations and this was a source of pride. There was a belief that you needed a strong union to look after you and management was never to be trusted. The prize was to be a driver, not a manager. In relation to women, as none of the family work history included women and the union seemed at best uninterested, the views most often expressed were 'I wouldn't want my wife or daughters hearing some of the stuff that goes on', 'I don't know why women would want to be here', 'I wouldn't like the missus being out there ...' This does not mean they were not good drivers or good people; it was that the system operated for them at a personal level as much as for those it was designed to serve. The status quo seemed fine.

The system was/is geared to support those inside. The recruitment tests and entry qualifications were gender-biased; overtime was a sought-after entitlement and certain drivers earned high incomes; the base award had little to do with their expected take-home pay. Drivers explained to me with great patience about the virtue and otherwise of certain shifts and routes and what that meant for their working conditions. Most could not imagine what it would be like to work with women and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds as equals. People from other cultures value jobs in public transport. The jobs are considered stable, prestigious and secure and many highly qualified immigrants were finding the obstacles to their CityRail careers frustrating. For women it was a double whammy and the verbal harassment was close to unbearable.

This is not just about women. It is also about those on the margins trying to get ahead. Where women fit is one indicator of successful change. I recall that at that stage there were two women drivers - hardly the takeover that was feared. Today I looked at the latest annual report and discovered that 19 per cent of the state's rail employees are women but cannot find the more detailed breakdown for CityRail. However, I feel secure in asserting that the 1997 target of 50 per cent is way off. Before you think I see the rail problems as an anti-feminist plot, let me say that this seems to me to be a typical case of those inside the tent organising their working conditions to keep the rest out.

FEBRUARY 13, 2004




CHINA: THE FIRST FEMALE TRAIN DRIVER, 2002

China's first female railroad engineer said she had never imagined that her destiny would be so closely linked to that of the People's Republic. 'The founding of New China has changed my life's path entirely,' said 70-year-old Tian Guiying. A fisherman's daughter from a poverty-stricken village near Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, Tian had five older sisters and was seen as an unexpected burden on her parents when she was born. 'Girls were deemed inferior in those times,' Tian said. At 16, she became a worker at a local railway company. She joined the trade union there and later became an underground member of the Communist Party of China. After the People's Republic of China was founded, the local railroad company began recruiting female engineers. Tian applied for the position, and after three months of training, was named chief engineer over nine other female applicants. At 6:00 am on March 8, 1950, Tian started the steam-driven engine and eased the train away from the Dalian station.

The story of China's first lady train engineer spread fast throughout the country, and Tian soon became a celebrity. Months after her successful first run, Tian was selected as a national model worker and chosen to present a silk banner to Chairman Mao Zedong on behalf of all model workers from northeast China provinces. 'I was so excited that I was all tears and could not say a single word when standing before Chairman Mao,' Tian recalled.

[Tian] was recruited by the Tangshan Railway Institute in 1952 [and] was assigned to work as a railway engineer with the railroad in Shenyang, the provincial capital of Liaoning.

THE ENGLISH PEOPLE'S DAILY, 2002.




SOUTH AFRICA: TRAIN DRIVER OVERCOMES MALE PREJUDICE
TO BECOME FIRST FEMALE TRAINEE SECTION MANAGER, 2001.

A determined Cape Town mother has proved that women are equal to men behind the controls of a passenger train. Train driver Badroe-A-Niesa Mentor, 31, last month became the first woman trainee section manager at Metrorail after years of fighting the prejudices of her male colleagues. Mentor had been fascinated with trains since childhood, but women were excluded from the profession. Then in 1997 when she was 25, Metrorail opened the way for women drivers and she jumped at the opportunity. Some men train drivers did not believe she would make it through the gruelling 18-month training course, which demands physical ability. Overcoming all obstacles and challenges, Mentor doggedly decided to prove them wrong and made the grade as a train driver two years ago. Then, last month, she became the first female trainee section manager at Metrorail. Now she is being groomed to manage the operational staff at Metrorail and to ensure drivers follow the correct safety procedures. But her journey has not been easy.

The training course required an 80% pass rate for practical and theoretical examinations, and women had to lift heavy machinery and even disconnect train carriages and cables. 'We were only three girls and the guys in our class were very supportive. It was the qualified train drivers who would put us down. But we showed them,' said Mentor. Her day would start at 3am and she often only left work at 9pm.

The demanding schedule took its toll on her personal life and she rarely saw her seven-year-old son Azroodeen.

'I don't know if I would have made it without my parents' help. Sometimes my sister would take my son to stay with her, just so that I could have some space for myself. Because really with a job like this you lose your social life,' she said. Graduating at the end of 1999, Mentor started driving trains on all the major routes in Cape Town and surrounding areas. And although the job is exciting, she admits it is dangerous for a woman at times. 'When you finish off your shift late in the evening, you have to check your set (train) with a little torch, all by yourself. 'Luckily I haven't had any problems yet.' Nadia Edwards, 26, a woman driver who is on maternity duty at Metrorail offices, said she was dying to get back to driving. 'Everyday you have people gaping and pointing at you. 'On good days they will scream things like, 'you go girl!' But when trains run late and it's not even your fault, they blame you because you're a woman,' said Edwards. Mentor's instructor Alfie Vercuil has no doubt that she has what it takes to make it to the top.

SOUTH AFRICAN SUNDAY TIMES, 21 OCT 2001




JAPAN: A DAY IN THE WORKING LIFE OF NORIKO ITO, 2000

Noriko Ito, 29, is the only female conductor on the Asakusa Line, Tokyo Metropolitan Subway. She started out three years ago as a member of the station staff. Then after a year she took a test and was promoted to the conductor's post. If all goes well she would like one day to be a train driver - but that would mean another test and another promotion. Some 3,000 employees work on the Tokyo Metropolitan Subways. Only 30 at most are women and, with the exception of Noriko, none of them have worked on board as a conductor or driver. Under the regulations of the Labor Standards Law, the night shift had always been prohibited for women workers, which made it impossible for them to take up such jobs. These regulations were abolished in 1999, and now Noriko works night shifts alongside her male colleagues. However the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has since embarked on various restructuring measures including a personnel reduction plan, so there is hardly any new recruitment for conductors. Noriko was lucky to secure her position when she did. Train crews work in varying shifts, the earliest from 06:50 to 15:00, to provide a service running 20 hours a day. It takes two hours for Noriko to get to work from home, so on the nights before an early shift she stays overnight at her parents' house, which is closer to her workplace. In practice this means she stays with her parents as often as she stays at home with her husband.

A conductor's job is, as Noriko puts it, 'to manage running time and secure the safety of passengers.' When the train arrives at a station, she confirms its position and opens the doors. Paying attention to the time, she watches the movement of passengers getting on and off, closes the doors and gives a signal for departure. This is the moment when she is on the highest alert. While the train is running, she looks after onboard passengers. In the case of an emergency, such as a passenger suddenly being taken ill, she informs the driver and arranges the necessary measures at the next stop. Once on board the train, except for a break every two to three hours and in the brief waiting time before departure, she is standing. Her legs and back get tired and her shoulders stiffen. One's eyes can become bleary in the dim light and by the end of a day on the subway the inside of your nose may become black with dust. 'I sometimes go and have a massage,' Noriko laughs. If you are not feeling on top form, working on the train can be very tough. When she is working an evening shift, Noriko reports at 14:00 and works until after 22:00. Next day she gets up at 04:00, boards the first train of the day, and usually finishes after 20:00. The following day she may be off or on a day shift. Subway staff used to have six days' holiday every four weeks, while a two-day weekend was granted only every other week. But recently a long-standing demand of the Tokyo Municipal Transport Workers' Union was accepted, and as of 1 June 2001 a five-day week was introduced with eight days' leave every four weeks. Daily working hours are, however, extended by 40 minutes on average, leaving Noriko with mixed feelings about the new system. She gets anxious about the pressures of work, but enjoys the enhanced responsibilities that have come with her promotion, such as being responsible for deciding when the train should move. 'I don't want to forget the excitement I felt when I closed the doors for the first time,' she says. Immediately after school

Noriko took a job at an onboard kiosk on the Shinkansen, Japan's high-speed train. Then she changed direction to work at a publishing company. Finally she chose the subway as her third job, reasoning that in the long term it would be better to work in a public body where working conditions are well established. On the Shinkansen it was customary for women workers to retire when they got pregnant.. Noriko also appreciates the existence of a trade union in the workplace. There was no union at her previous workplaces.

Now Noriko has many people to consult with about job-related problems and concerns. In order to welcome the first woman worker to the male-dominated conductors' workplace, the first thing to do was to install a bathroom and other facilities, including a room in a building near the depot where Noriko often stays overnight after an evening shift. Her uniform and hat have been altered at her request - the old hat was easily blown off, and there was only one pocket on the summer blouse, which now has two as on the men's shirts. These might seem like small changes, but a trivial thing can make a great difference when it comes to working comfortably. Noriko is the only woman - unless she speaks out, nothing will change. At first she says, she felt awkward about her voice. But her colleagues actively encouraged her, asking 'Is there anything bothering you? Do you have any problems?' She anticipated some cynical comments from male workers that women are better off working as station staff.

In order to be a conductor she had to study unfamiliar subjects such as mechanics and electrification systems. Sometimes she felt she was struggling to keep up with her male colleagues who already had knowledge of these subjects. Nevertheless she has been received warmly, and now she is confident that the subway is a place where women can develop a long-term career. With two years' experience as a conductor, Noriko is now eligible to take the test to become a train driver. It might not be long before we see the first woman train driver on the Tokyo Metropolitan Subway.

HIROKO WATANABE, TRANSPORT INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 2000




INDIA: SUREKHA YADAV, 2001

[Pictured on the thumbnail picture leading to this page]
Mumbai [Bombay]: In this international year of the woman, a 32-year-old lady locomotive driver Surekha Yadav became the first female driver to run a suburban local train. She achieved the feat when she zoomed a Dombivili local train from the historic Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus here. Surekha, mother of two kids, nine-year-old Ajinkya and six-year-old Ajitesh, is married to a cop. 'My family has always been supportive to me,' she said smilingly with emotions exuding. Surekha has completed her diploma in electronic engineering from the Government Polytechnic at Karad in the Satara district of western Maharashtra. She joined the Railways in 1986 as an assistant driver after undergoing training at the Kalyan Training School. Since the last ten years she has been driving goods train and shunting other trains. Her hard work payed (sic) and she was finally promoted as a motor-woman.

Driving an EMU unit is not an easy task and very few attain this peak of excellence. She was accorded a warm welcome by women commuters as she boldly walked inside the motorman's cabin. 'I still cannot believe that I am the first lady driver to drive a local train', she said. To a query on the odd shifts, she said she does not have much of a problem as her family is very supportive. INDIANINFO.COM

One expected to see a tall, strapping, bold woman. At least that was the vision conjured up by the mind when one thought of India's, nay Asia's, first woman train engine driver. But the lady who appeared for the interview was a far cry from it. A thin, extremely soft-spoken woman, who bore no traces of victory at having crossed over into so male-dominated a domain. Nonchalance and calm marks the make-up of Surekha Shankar Yadav. Dressed in trousers and a silk shirt, 35-year-old Yadav is a picture of understated confidence. 'I have never thought about myself as a novelty. Though the fact remains that women train drivers are a rare breed, when one gets down to the work at hand, it is like any other job. At least it is not something that only a man can do,' says Yadav matter-of-factly. Feminism must be a word that rarely crossed Yadav's mind. 'I love the job I am doing. I did not take it up because I wanted to prove anything to myself or the world. It was a job that I qualified for or rather one of the only jobs that I was called for. I had given up on it as it took a long while to be confirmed, but when I got it, I was thrilled. For it meant a career to me.' . I received a letter from the Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai, in 1987. When I went in for the interview, I was asked by the other applicants if I had come to the right place for again, I was the only woman in that room. I appeared for a written examination. After, that there was no response. So I forgot all about it and after a year, I was called for my viva. In 1989, I was called for the medical examination and was finally selected for the job that year.' A six-month training and Yadav was conferred the post of assistant driver in a goods train. 'I remember vividly the first train that I was sent on. It was the L-50. You know trains are numbered alphabetically. That goods train was to be taken to Wadibunder from Kalyan and then back. The driver and I had to be on the train an hour and 15 minutes before the actual departure. It was my job to see the train's engine was in order, the signals, the entire works.' Was she excited? 'I was trained to be calm in all situations. Excitement must have been there, I am sure. But I have never been nervous,' Yadav recalls.

From taking trains to yards, Yadav went on to become a ghat assistant on the Igatpuri sector. That was memorable for the peace and lush greenery, she says. 'The ghats are a tough terrain, but the quiet is unbelievable. The scenery is so soothing to the eye. The only thing that bothers one is the cattle ambling to and fro on the tracks. Luckily for me, there were no accidents.'

After going through a number of postings, Yadav was put in charge of a goods train as a full-fledged driver in 1998. And for a change, she had an assistant driver to help her. Did any of her colleagues mind that she was a woman in a male bastion? 'If they did, they never let me know,' she says. 'Everyone was cordial. Where my job is concerned, my only grouse is that I cannot have a hearty talk with my male colleagues. But I am now used to that, too. We are all professionals doing a highly responsible job. So there is really no room for small talk.' Did the shift to being a motor-woman in local trains make a difference? 'Not perceptibly. It is a promotion. One realises that there lies a huge responsibility on one's shoulders as one has a trainload of passengers. And the problems of people crossing the tracks are also there. But it is different as at least one can honk and the person in question will move away from the tracks, unlike animals.' Yadav receives her quota of gawkers who look at her as she hops into her chair in the motorman's cabin. There are autograph hunters and men and women who want to chat her up. But Yadav is unperturbed by the fuss. 'I am here to do a job and if I stop to answer these queries, though they all mean well, I will bungle up my job. And that is the last thing I want to do.' Yadav's husband, Shankar, is a police constable. The couple have two sons. 'We have no ambitions for our children other than that they should be educated and make something meaningful out of their lives.' 'I would like to drive a long distance passenger train. But that is in the distant future. And when the opportunities come in the form of promotions, I am only too glad to seize them.'

WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM




How does Yadav handle the fact that she is the only woman motorman in Mumbai? Says she, 'It has been quite easy. There are no catcalls or even teasing from the men travelling on the train. Some people stare at me but that does not bother me.' Yadav is also equipped to handle emergencies like railroad agitations, instant strikes or people crossing or sitting on the tracks. 'This job may not be glamorous, but it is steady. One can earn good money here and also get retirement benefits,' she says. The pay scales for women, according to Yadav, are on par with the male workers. And how do the male workers react to a woman driver? 'Some are jealous. Some are cooperative,' says Yadav. And this is true even of the passengers. 'Sometimes, during emergencies, people discover that there is a woman driver. I don't lose my cool. And if the mob is angry, it is not as aggressive when they see a woman driver,' she adds. But to be safe in such situations, Yadav has worked out a strategy. Says she, 'I close all the doors, remain alert for any attacks and try and think on my feet. The people who do rasta rokos [road blocks] or try to damage trains should fight it out with the administration. There is no point in attacking trains.'

NIVEDITA SHARMA, HINDUSTAN TIMES, 10 DECEMBER 2001




WOMEN CONDUCTORS AND DRIVERS IN ALASKA

Everywhere in the railroad yards in Anchorage are signs that warn of 'men working.' The signage isn't entirely accurate, gender-wise, but it's pretty close. The Alaska Railroad Corp. has 670 employees, 94 of whom are women who mostly fill office and administrative jobs. For those who run the engines, only five of 180 conductors and engineers are women, a number that has stayed about the same for the last 20 years. 'Women are coming to the railroad slowly but surely,' said conductor Stephanie Burnham, who has been at the railroad since 1983 and has the second-longest tenure of female engine operators. 'Alaska Railroad is definitely open to having women, but I'm not sure why more women don't come to work here.' She guessed it could be the long and often uncertain hours. 'Trains can be called any time night or day,' Burnham said. 'It's not a job that lends itself to a quote, 'normal family life.' ' The number of female railroad engineers and conductors is on track with airline pilots, electricians, plumbers and auto mechanics, where fewer than 5 percent of the work force is female, according to state statistics. Burnham, 51, said when she was hired at the railroad, there were five women qualified to operate the engines, the same as today. Though the numbers remain low, the attitude toward women has changed for the good, Burnham said. 'I've seen a lot more acceptance,' Burnham said, adding that if someone - male or female - proves they can handle a train safely and skillfully, they're accepted as simply a 'railroader.' 'I think those people are pretty much gone,' Burnham said of men who think only men belong on the railroad. 'But like any industry that is male-dominated, perhaps there is a small element of holdover.' Burnham is not sure what drew her to trains, but she did say it may have been a train set her father bought for her before she was born, expecting a son, she said. 'It's not something I ever thought I'd do,' Burnham said of railroading. Working on trains does have its benefits, Burnham added. 'I get to wear real comfortable clothing,' Burnham said. 'And I have a great view from my office.' Before this job, Burnham was a high school physical education teacher and worked with special education students. She landed a job with the Burlington Northern Railroad in Seattle, and in 1983 came to Alaska. 'I came to Alaska to spend one summer,' Burnham said, adding some railroad humor. 'I've been here all my live long day.' Burnham mostly runs freight trains nowadays, but there was a time she routinely hauled tourists to Whittier. 'They'd be surprised when they saw a women up there running an engine,' Burnham said. Burnham and Paula Pisik, the longest-tenured engine operator, acted as mentors for Martha Claugus, a 22-year-old conductor and engineer, the youngest at the railroad. 'They've told me what to expect and how to be a woman on the Alaska Railroad,' Claugus said. 'I've had some great women come before me.' 'In the beginning, it was real difficult. Guys, in general, were a little wary,' Claugus said. 'Once I proved I can run a train, 99 percent of the guys were just great and helpful. The others just stay away from me.' She admits there are some things that probably only a woman would do when operating a train. 'The first few moose I hit, I cried,' Claugus said. 'That is pretty difficult for me, and if I never ever hit another one again, I'll be happy.' She also wouldn't mind talking to other women railroaders more often. 'It's nice to get a dose of estrogen versus all that testosterone sometimes,' she said. 'I'm very proud to see Martha out there and running engines,' Burnham said. 'The word that I get from the fellows is nothing but praise.' 'I'm always glad to see more women coming on because we can do the job,' Burnham said.

Pat Gamble, president of the Alaska Railroad, says Claugus is a 'shining star' and an ambassador for the railroad. She also is an example of the railroad's philosophy of wanting to hire hard-working folks from within the corporation, Gamble said. Claugus, a 1996 Chugiak High School graduate, worked her way up from tour guide to brakeman and fireman, to conductor and engineer in less than five years, through testing and on-the-job training. Gamble, a former four-star general in the U.S. Air Force and commander of all Air Forces in the Pacific, was flying fighter jets in Vietnam when he was Claugus' age. 'There were no women flying in those days, but today, at 22 or 23, we have women fighter pilots,' Gamble said. Hauling passengers and millions of dollars worth of often hazardous commodities is a big job, and not one given out to just anyone, Gamble said. 'It is a lot of responsibility at that age, and it's probably pretty surprising to some to see her at the head of a train,' Gamble said. 'She is good.' Neither the opportunity nor the responsibility is lost on Claugus, who attended one year of college at the University of Alaska Anchorage and hopes to go back someday. 'I've been blessed,' Claugus said. 'I know I'm real young to make the amount of money I make.' Engineers and conductors make more than $20 an hour, and work sometimes up to 96 hours a week in the summer. The overtime helped Claugus buy a new home in Eagle River recently. She is engaged to be married next year to Steve Conlan, a locomotive electrician. Someday, Claugus hopes to have a baby, but knows she'll have to take quite a bit of time off because her job requires her to be able to lift at least 50 pounds. 'I can't do that when I'm pregnant.' The railroad union also has no provision for maternity leave, she said. 'It's never been too much of an issue up to this point,' she said.

JAMES MACPHERSON, ALASKA JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, 29 OCTOBER 2001




USA: THERESA POOLE, LOCOMOTIVE ELECTRICIAN

Theresa Poole began working for Amtrak in 1984 as the first female electrician assistant. After going through a rigorous apprenticeship, she became a full-fledged electrician in 1987 - another first for Amtrak. Since then, she's worked in virtually every area of Amtrak's local operations, including in Union Station, in the diesel division and in the engine house. In February 2000, she came to work for Virginia Railways Express, where she holds the position of cab-car locomotive electrician. Still the sole female electrician at VRE, she spends an 'average' day testing cab signals, making sure all the cab-cars are functioning properly, and handling all of the electrical-related maintenance for three trains.

VIRGINIA RAILWAY EXPRESS, USA, OCTOBER 1, 2001




CREW SPOTLIGHT: SUSIE EVANS

Back when Susie Evans first started working in the railroad industry in 1980, she was just about the only female trainman working on the Fort Worth & Denver freight trains in Fort Worth, Texas. Today, she's part of a growing group … but still a small minority within VRE's mostly-male crew. There are, in fact, just three female engineers and four female 'trainmen.' She's not sure why railroading is an industry that has never attracted more women, but for her, it's been a great career. 'I got into railroading sort of accidentally,' she said. 'I was in the construction business in 1979 … I quit and went to the railroads … The employment office asked if I wanted to be a switchman working in the yard, and I said okay. Then, I ran home and asked everyone I knew what a switchman was, because I had no idea,' she laughed … Now a conductor on VRE's Manassas line, Evans is responsible for the train's overall operation - making sure all the required work is being done and that everyone is abiding by the safety rules and railroad operating rules. The rest - such as checking tickets, opening doors and helping passengers - is really secondary to the railroad work. Conductors and engineers share equally in their responsibilities.

The switch from freight trains to passenger trains was a big adjustment, she said, with a lot of pluses and minuses to both. 'I'm getting older, and it got harder and harder to hang on frozen box cars all night! … The hours are another big plus to passenger trains, she said, as it's the first time in her life she's had daylight work and weekends off. 'You just don't get that with freight,' she said. On the flip side, she joked, 'it's more stressful working with passengers than with freight!'

COMMUTER WEEKLY, APRIL 29, 2003




USA: BLAZING THE RAILS: MAKING IT IN A MAN'S WORLD

Nancy Cowan is a friendly grandmother of nine with shining eyes and a warm smile, who enjoys tending to the flowers in her lush back yard. Her retired days are a world away from the life she led only a couple of years ago. Her eyes twinkle with impish delight when she tells people what she did for a living before she stopped working in 2001. She already knows what their response will be - disbelief. For nearly a quarter of a century, Cowan 'ran' locomotives with the best of them as a train engineer for Southern and later Union Pacific railroads. She operated massive locomotives, pulling railcars, the largest three miles long, along Northern California railways in a region that could take her north to Roseville, east to Tracy and south to San Luis Obispo. This easygoing woman not only helped pave the way for females in a male-dominated career field but worked side by side with crusty men to earn their respect while holding on to her femininity. The job was demanding, for man or woman. As a train engineer, she was always on call.

'We had no regular schedule. We had no life', she said. The railway could call her to work anytime, day or night, with a two-hour notice.

The only thing she could count on was a maximum 12-hour shift. By federal law, she explained, the railway could not work her longer.

'If you come up to your 12 hours (while on a shift), you "die" there,' she said, explaining that 'die' meant the shift was immediately over, no matter when or where one was. But that limit had its caveats. If she worked less than 12 hours, the railway only had to give her six hours before they could call her back to work. 'If you knew you were going to get called, sleep was a real issue,' she said. 'Sometimes you would just get home and have to go to bed because you knew you would get called.' A typical day could mean she was called at 2 a.m. to come to work by 4 a.m. When she arrived at the rail yard, she had to pick up paperwork and then check the 'power.' The engines that pull the locomotive and its cars are called power. The number of powers depended on the train's weight. The heavier the train, the more powers are needed. 'You'll have at least two engines, sometimes five,' she said, adding that once she had 16, although some of those were extra and were not used.

After she verified the number of powers she needed for the cars being pulled and checked that everything was hooked up correctly, she would perform air tests before getting clearance to leave from the 'yardmaster,' the person who oversees all of the train traffic from the tower. Running the trains was always exciting. 'You never knew what you were going to get,' Cowan said.

She recalled pulling cars for the circus and watching the elephants, zebras and lions. The elephants would often extend their trunks outside their specially designed cars. 'They have real heavy-duty wheels underneath them,' said Cowan. She had to be cautious with the train's speed because the elephants could derail the train. 'If they got the momentum going, they could derail it real easy,' she explained. As the train chugged through the countryside and towns, a female train engineer would catch people off guard. Cowan recalled giving a group of fishermen a shock. 'Coming out of Crockett, you come around this curve,' she said, and pass a fishing hole. 'There's a lot of fish in there and these guys would get to drinking and having fun.' The fishermen, not knowing a female was operating the train, 'mooned' the train as it passed. 'I'd go by and wave,' she said, laughing. 'It would be so funny to watch. They couldn't get their pants up fast enough.' Sometimes the experiences were not pleasant, as when a man committed suicide by darting in front of her engine. 'I still see his face,' said Cowan. 'He was a college professor, they said. He came over and jumped in front of the train.'

There was another time she hit a man who did not realize he had been hit. She explained that she was coming into Sacramento and had slowed the train down. As she came around a curve, a man was suddenly in front of her. 'I could hear it,' she said. 'It's like a crack.' She brought the train to a stop and told the conductor what had happened. It was the conductor who found the man sitting up on the ground. When he told the man that he had been hit, the man did not realize it, Cowan said. 'The guy was drunk. He told the conductor, "Well, I didn't spill my beer." ' Cowan recalled another time that a woman purposely drove around the guard gates and onto the railroad tracks in front of her train.

'Who knows what she was thinking,' she said. 'She went around the gate. When she crossed over, the traffic was backed up and she couldn't get in the clear.' Incredulous, Cowan added, 'She went around (the gate) with a cop right behind her - and then she sued me.' Cowan never learned what happened to the lawsuit; she turned the legal papers over to the railroad company to be handled. Cowan's career as a train engineer is testimony to her bold spirit. She first worked for the railroad as a clerk for eight years and saw the trains coming in and leaving. 'I watched the trains go off like they were going off on an adventure,' she said. 'And they were.'

Cowan, at the time a single mother raising two daughters, became the fourth female train engineer in the region for Southern Pacific. 'The first two girls were really adventurous. There was a lot of hostility coming in,' she said. 'The third was too young. She got nervous and quit. Then I came along.' In the male-dominated world of the rails, Cowan kept her identity. 'I found that if you acted like a lady, you got treated like a lady,' she said. 'I never swore. I was always clean and neat and looked like a female. I was treated nice, at least to my face.' However, her presence was not always welcome. During her training period, one man refused to work with her and stormed in to their supervisor's office to complain about having a female trainee. The supervisor gave him two clear options: Either work with her or go home. He chose the former. Although Cowan worked with men for up to 12 hours a day, signs of her femininity were around. As the only female, she knew how to annoy her coworkers: She would take out some nail polish and begin polishing her nails. Blowing on her nails in mock fun, she described, with a laugh, how they would leave the room grumbling. Another downside to the job was jealousy. The wives did not like it, she said. The 12-hour shift was too much togetherness for some of them. To sidestep problems, she avoided coworkers during company get-togethers. In spite of the downs, the money was good.

'I would average between $65,000-$75,000 a year, and that's not working much.' The engineers are paid according to how much power they handle, Cowan said. 'The more engines, the more money they make, because it's more complicated.' While working at Southern Pacific, Cowan met and married her present husband, Clifford Cowan, a retired train conductor. Her husband, a 43-year veteran conductor, retired seven years ago.

TERESA C. BROWN, PLEASANTON WEEKLY, USA, JULY 11, 2003




CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. V. CANADA (HUMAN RIGHTS COMM.) AND ACTION TRAVAIL DES FEMMES.

The Supreme Court of Canada reversed a decision of the Federal Court of Appeal and reinstated an order of a Tribunal requiring Canadian National Railway to hire one woman in every four new hires into unskilled blue-collar jobs. A Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that Canadian National Railway had discriminated against women in the St. Lawrence region who were seeking employment in non-traditional blue-collar jobs. Women held only 0.7 percent of blue-collar jobs in the region, and the Tribunal found that CN Rail's recruitment, hiring and promotion policies prevented and discouraged women from working in blue-collar jobs. As part of a comprehensive remedial order, the Tribunal ordered CN Rail to hire one woman in every four new hires into blue-collar positions until the representation of women reached 13 percent, which is the national percentage for women working in equivalent jobs. CN Rail appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal which ruled that the Tribunal did not have authority to impose a hiring quota.

The Supreme Court of Canada overturned this decision … The measures ordered by the Tribunal, including the hiring quota, were designed to break a continuing cycle of systemic discrimination against women. The goal is not to compensate past inactions or even to provide new opportunities for specific individuals who have been unfairly refused jobs or promotion in the past. Rather, an employment equity program, much as the one ordered by the Tribunal in the present case, is an attempt to ensure that future applicants and workers from the affected group will not face the same insidious barriers that blocked their forebears. When confronted with systemic discrimination, the type of order issued by the Tribunal is the only means by which the purpose of the Canadian Human Rights Act can be met. In any program of employment equity, there simply cannot be a radical disassociation of 'remedy' and 'prevention,' since there is no prevention without some form of remedy. The Court allows the appeal and restores in its entirety the order of the Tribunal. A cross-appeal by CN Rail, by which it sought to set aside the entire decision and order of the Tribunal, is dismissed.

CANADIAN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTER




AUSTRALIA: VIOLENCE: RAIL WORKERS' HOT SPRAY

A female City Rail worker, urinated on twice in the course of her job, is pleading for upgraded security as angry workmates flag industrial action during the Rugby World Cup. Train guard Isabelle Mills, said she had seen other workers spat on and repeatedly witnessed masturbation during her time as a City Rail employee. 'We shouldn't have to threaten industrial action,' she told Workers Online.

Train guards - who have been pulled from moving trains, spat on, abused, had objects thrown at them and had to deal with violent and unruly passengers on a day to day basis - are calling for security on train services to be beefed up. 'I had a man come up with his hand in his pocket in the shape of a gun and he went "bang" ', says Mills, who has found the abuse to be a regular part of her job. 'It affects people very much. It affects your family life.' Incidents are not confined to late night services with one rail worker describing how a passenger broke a beer bottle over his own head on a mid-morning service in the Hunter Valley. In that incident a rail guard was forced to deal with two potentially violent men who abused and intimidated other passengers on the service. Train guards receive no training in how to deal with violent passengers or those affected by drugs and alcohol.

HTTP://WORKERS.LABOR.NET.AU




NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RAILWAY BUSINESS WOMEN

The National Association of Railway Business Women was started in the USA in January 1921 because several women railroad employees wanted to 'meet the people they talked to on the phone'. The purpose of the organisation is to stimulate interest in the railroad industry; to foster cooperation and better understanding within the industry and its affiliates; to create good public relations for the railroad industry; to further educational, social and professional interests of its members; to undertake charitable, benevolent and social welfare projects. By 2004, the organization comprised 1,500 members and 31 chapters nationwide.

To be eligible for membership, a woman must be currently or formerly employed in the railroad industry, or currently or formerly employed in services by any of the following carriers by rail and steamship: AMTRAK, REA (Railway Express Agency), Bureaus, Railroad Associations, Tariff Bureaus, Demurrage, Weighing and Inspection Bureaus and other associations, bureaus and agencies or organizations controlled by or maintained by the foregoing transportation companies and employees of unions working in the railroad industry, and employees of Railroad sponsored Credit Unions or currently, or was formerly employed in an industry that is railroad oriented, or currently, or was formerly employed by a railroad connected industry, or is married to a current or former employee of one of the above industries or a female relative of a member, at the discretion of the Board of Directors of the local chapter. One of the purposes of NARBW is to establish, provide and operate residences to be used as living quarters for members of this Association after retirement. The society has also been involved in giving scholarships, and supporting various charities including soup kitchens, nursing homes, churches, and a children's hospital.

WWW.NARBW.COM




This material is taken from the book Railwaywomen.
Email the publisher.

HOME