International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day provides a salutary reminder that the first named railway employee was a woman. A 1645 entry from the burial registers of Whickham, a village in North East England and the former site of the Whickham Waggonway, shows the existence of a widow gatekeeper. The record displayed, from The Story Durham, shows near the top left the words ‘wedow Howborne at waggon yate’. Howborne was a widow who operated the waggon gate by her cottage.

An entry from the burial registers of Whickham, a village in North East England and the former site of the Whickham Waggoway, shows the existence of a widow gatekeeper. Credit: The Story Durham and S&DR200

During the modern railway era, since 1825, women’s roles on the railway have changed greatly. Initially they were quite limited, to those activities deemed socially ‘appropriate’ at the time. Women worked in railway workshops as seamstresses and in railway laundries, as serving staff in catering spaces and hotels and as station and office cleaners. But they also continued to work in an operational environment – as gatekeepers since at least the 1840s, and from the early 20th century onwards as carriage cleaners. By the First World War there were around 14,000 women employed by the railways.

War ushered in changes – albeit often temporary. In the First and Second World Wars women took on new roles, replacing men who were on active service. They cleaned locomotives, became dock workers, wagon repairers, ticket collectors, porters and even signalwomen, and took on heavier work inside railway factories, driving cranes and riveting locomotives.

War also proved decisive in admitting women to railway trades unions. Though the Railwaywomen’s Guild had been set up in 1900 as a space for wives and daughters of railwaymen to contribute to the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, women were only allowed to join the union (by then having become the National Union of Railwaymen) in 1916. Whilst many women left railway service after fighting ended, in 1921 there were still over 56,000 women employed on the railways. From the mid-1920s this stabilised at around 23,000 railwaywomen, until war broke out again. In 1945 there were over 91,000 women working on the railways.

It wasn’t until 1979 when Karen Harrison became one of the first female train drivers. Considerable strides have been made since then, with women now representing more than 16% of the industry’s workforce, but still not enough. The railway is redoubling its efforts to be more representative of the society it serves. Throughout the bicentenary, Railway 200 is championing the role of women and shining a light on the diversity of roles available for everyone.

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