LONDON North Eastern Railway (LNER) has announced a commitment to double the number of women applying for jobs at the company by 2025.
LNER will focus on attracting more women to train driver roles, which currently show the biggest disparity between male and female applicants. Female drivers currently only account for 10% of the operator’s driver pool, despite LNER’s entire workforce being 42% female.
The number of female drivers at LNER is still above average for the industry, with the 2019 ASLEF Diversity report finding that on average just 6.5% of all British train drivers are women. Across all British rail industry roles, just 16% of all employees were found to be female.
The number of women applying for LNER driver roles has already more than doubled in the past three years, from 7% in 2017 to 17% in 2020. LNER is aiming for 40% of driver applications to be from women by 2025.
“The rail industry needs to do more to encourage women to consider a career in the sector,” says Ms Karen Lewis, LNER’s people director. “We’re pleased to see an increasing number of applications each year from women who are interested in pursuing careers as a train driver and we’re looking to speak to women who have never considered the industry before and encourage them to learn more.”
Research conducted by Perspectus Global on behalf of LNER showed only 1% of women said they had wanted to be a train driver when they were young compared with 21% who wanted to be famous, and 23% who wanted to be a teacher. The research was carried out between February 24 and 25, with a total sample of 2004 women aged 16-65, weighted to be representative of British adults.
The research showed a clear divide between stereotypically male and female careers when it came to the aspirations of women when they were younger, with 18% wanting to be a nurse or a vet, compared with 2% considering a career as a mechanic or less than 1% as a plumber when they grew up.
