Time to Stop Minding the Gap and Fix It
People have long thought that transport is male dominated because the people working in the sector have predominantly male interests like train-spotting and cars. Perhaps we have been looking at cause and effect the wrong way round. We know that girls are much more interested in social relationships from an early age and the new research suggests that it is these skills are particularly weak in transport. For the sector to become more social and inclusive major change is needed.
Transport is one of the country’s biggest employers with as many roles in people orientated customer centric functions as analytical and technical roles. Transport is used by all of society and needs all of society to help make it better.
In this new paper George Eckton seeks to stimulate debate by offering a personal perspective on what needs to change. He calls for a more collaborative approach within which poor practice is challenged.
The report is published on International Womens Day to provoke debate about what we need to do. Tell us in the comments below how you celebrate women’s achievements. This could be as simple as a donation to women’s aid Scotland here
Read the report here
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Great new report from the RSA “Minority groups have never had the same access to social capital as dominant groups. We’re not at the same dinner parties, we aren’t in conference rooms where decisions get made, so we don’t always hear about opportunities for support & collaboration.” https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2019/03/representation
Interesting reflections by former STSG chair Alan MacKinnon “Looking back, it is sad to think that I partly owed my first lecturing job to academic sexism ” https://www.alanmckinnon.co.uk/blog/?p=255
This EU project may be of interest: DIAMOND – To address gender-specific needs in Europe’s current and future transport systems
https://diamond-project.eu/ .
It looks at Public transport, employment in transport, autonomous vehicles and bike sharing.
Involved are Catalonia Railways, Spain, and Warsaw Public Transport etc.
In Scotland: Ron McQuaid and Yvonne Hail at Stirling University and Wafaa Saleh and Augustus Ababio-Donkar from TRI, Edinburgh Napier University.
It would be helpful if people completed a survey at: https://cutt.ly/DIAMONDsurvey (espeically the one on employment in trransport).
The UK Parliamentary Group Women in Transport set up the Scotland hub in early 2021 with sponsorship from Network rail, Transport Scot land and Momentum Transport Consultancy. The virtual launch event in March welcomed almost 100 people . The group plans to
run at least four events and grow the members base to 45 people in our first year. The group has a strong team of 6 volunteers but more support is always welcome. Further details here: https://www.womenintransport.com/scotland
Invitation to members to discussion on recommendations for increasing transport operators level of fairness & inclusiveness” (Employment)
This is part of the final stages of the EU funded DIAMOND project (https://diamond-project.eu/ )
Information and registration:
https://www.tfaforms.com/4910145
As February comes round again it is always worth remembering that it was women tram drivers in Petrograd striking for International Women’s Day who brought down the Tsar and thus triggered the events leading to the Bolshevik Revolution
https://www.sutori.com/en/story/the-february-1917-revolution–7gvMME3poCmMfcYXfo89NNaZ
Caledonian Sleeper celebrate International Women’s Day 2022 by remembering railway engineering pioneer Olive Dennis https://www.sleeper.scot/a-railway-pioneer/