Women in Rail
rather be with someone else’,’ explained Ginn. That process finished at the end of August and September marks the formal start of the scheme.
‘Mentoring is about creating a relationship,’ explained Ginn, ‘and while it is supposed to last for around one year, the key to the success of this scheme will be if it continues beyond that, even informally, without Women in Rail being involved.’
The relationships will be regularly monitored for one year to address any issues. ‘After that’ said Ginn, ‘as far as Women in Rail is concerned the process is finished in the sense that we will stop supervising, but of course, as I said, we would be happy for them to continue.’ The success of the scheme will be assessed in due course, with a view to repeating the process yearly.
Women want to make a difference Women in Rail is currently establishing links with organisations such as Young Railway Professionals and the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering, and speaking to educational establishments to raise awareness of careers in rail. One of its initiatives is a promotional video aimed at that vital audience for the future of the industry – school children. Said Ginn, ‘Rail is not on the menu of potential careers in schools, it’s perceived as low pay, long hours, dirty, steamy and is currently only promoted through initiatives like that of The Smallpeice trust, which shows Year 8 and 9 pupils what rail engineering is really about.’
Page 22 September 2013
‘One thing we’ve realised is that women and young girls want to feel that they’re making a difference, and maybe the reason why rail is not appealing is because they don’t have that connection yet, so we want the video to make clear that there is an opportunity to make a huge difference. We have the PRMTSI/ RVAR disability regulations coming into force for example, and we want to show girls how helpful their input will be in making a difference to everyday people.’
Sponsor for a new website Other initiatives include establishing links with RRUK and its work with youngsters, ‘RRUK is very happy to have us because it says we have women talking about rail,’ said Ginn excitedly, and there is the Rail Know your Woman initiative, which will see Ginn traveling around the UK spending time with suppliers and groups of women in the industry, following them in their day or night duties and videoing them talking about what they like about rail and their jobs. The idea is that those videos will be showcased on a new website that Women in Rail is currently looking for sponsors to help build. ‘That way any young woman or graduate considering rail can watch live testimonies, which I think will help change the image of rail – and I think that’s the fundamental issue - we need to bring it into the 21st
century.’ A need for flexibility
One of the women Ginn spoke to in setting up Women in Rail was Anna Walker, chair of the Office of Rail
Regulation Board, who mentioned that she was lucky that her employers had enabled her to bring up her young family via flexible working. ‘And this is absolutely an issue we need to push,’ said Ginn. ‘A lot of women have told me they are happy to put their children to bed and then carry on working for a couple of hours or so, but they need that flexibility.’ Asked if she thinks it currently exists enough in the industry, Ginn hesitated, ‘yes, but maybe not enough, and that’s one thing I discussed with ASLEF and the TUC recently. But at the end of the day it’s down to the rail companies. All we can do is start a conversation and bring awareness. Women should review their company’s diversity policy to see if it involves flexible working, and if it doesn’t have one then maybe they could create one. But that’s as far as Women in Rail will go because we don’t want to become political, but we will be the voice of women in rail.’
Given the demands of her high-flying
career, Ginn is clearly a highly capable woman to take on such an initiative and make it work, and to say she is busy is an understatement. ‘Yes but I love it,’ she laughed, ‘because I can see the testimonies to Women in Rail are fantastic and inspirational and there are a lot of great women out there who will make sure the industry knows it needs tap into the female talent pool.’ •
*Lord Davies of Abersoch and his report Women on Boards 2013: two years on Women in Rail can be found at
www.linkedin. com/groups/Women-in-Rail-4403652/about
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