It may also be an old boys club mentality.
I found this online forum https://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/203899.aspx?page=1 where this question was put forth:
Does anyone know how many women currently work for Class I railroads as locomotive engineers, conductors, and trainmen? Does anyone know where I can find that information?
If you read it the consensus seems to be not many (less than 1%) and the reason being that family obligations keep women out of these types of jobs.
One poster had this to say:
I can give you an example by sharing what a friend of mine, a conductor, is currently going through. In late 2010 both parents where diagnosed with cancer and in the midst of running them back and forth to a city an hour away for kemo, her husband blew his knee out and was laid up for 8 weeks. On top of all this, she is trying to hold her job and take care of her two little boys. She was fired for excessive absenteeism after exhausting her FMLA and vacation. She's been off since last May and is still fighting to get her job back.
Two of the responses were:
Linda (Grant) Niemann (now a professor of English at a college in Georgia, I believe) went through something similar on the SP, as recounted in her several articles in Trains in the early 2000's.Some of the local County governments here allow employees to 'gift' or transfer their unused sick and vacation days to co-workers who are in similar dire straits.
Railkat, your friend sure was dealt with in a heavy handed fashion.. Some employers offer extended leave on compassionate grounds. They do that because in the long term it benefits the employer as well in terms of not having to hire and train a replacement down the road. For some reason in the railroad culture it seems like a bragging right for some to deal more severely than they really need to.. probably because there are more applicants than positions available. Unpaid extended leave would have been a better option here than a straight up firing and out the door...
It would appear that only one female responded with:
I'm a female and work as a railroad conductor. My experience is that the men really don't want you there. They have the mentality that they are above the common citizen. When you work a job out on the main line and can't throw the rusty switches that haven't been oiled for over a year they laugh and tell you that it's your job and that you need to muscle up. They seem to find pleasure in seeing you struggle with risk of back injury but scoff at the idea of reporting the switch. The hours are terrible and you have no privacy. The bathrooms on the motor are unclean and no one cleans them even a little bit. When you get to the other side of the road if you dont go directly to your room and stay there then you are labeled a whore. If you don't join in on their male bonding sessions then you are a female dog. It's a no win situation. You have to share a community kitchen with a bunch of sloppy men who don't clean up after themselves. They sit around the main commons and talk about partying, cheap women, money, booze and obscene human functions. They tell you that this is the easiest job that you will ever have but when you ask them why their wives don't work here they always say 'oh, well she can't with the kids and stuff'. My view is that they think they are king and women are to bow down to them. The male engineers remind you to go get and carry the drinking water while no where in the rule book does it read that it is the conductors responsibility to carry the engineers drinking water. It's a rough life for a women, however, I believe if there were more women the railroad wouldnt have such a negative impression with the public. In general, railroaders have a real false sense of pride and typically are no bodies who think they have struck it rich and that everyone need to envy them.
I'm surmising that higher ups, who have most likely been around a long time may maintain outdated views toward women in the industry.
