If you travel by rail, or work in the industry, you might have noticed there are far more women working in the sector today compared to a decade ago.
Historically a male-dominated field, Australia’s rail sector – the sixth largest in the world – is slowly changing thanks to concerted actions and leadership by many organisations and industry bodies aimed to improve diversity and create a more inclusive sector.
Women’s representation in rail has risen from 17 per cent in 2014 to 28 per cent in 2023, and women now hold a quarter of management positions.
This blog explores the supportive practices making a difference, based on the research undertaken for the report. These practices help address some of the barriers to gender diversity and are key to continuing diversity and inclusion progress in the sector.
While several of these practices have been employed by larger employers in Australia’s rail sector, most can be adapted for smaller consultancies, suppliers and manufacturers.
Supportive practices to attract women
- Gender Equality Plans and Targets: Developing a gender equality plan and setting gender targets is an important foundational step to ensure steady progress.
- Gender Impact Assessments: Some organisations are starting to conduct gender impact assessments to ensure services and infrastructure design benefit all genders. These assessments are not only an important way to design gender-sensitive services that reflect the diversity of rail passengers but highlight the value of decision-making by gender-balanced teams.
- Sector Promotion: Highlighting how the rail sector is helping to deliver sustainable and accessible transport solutions and connect communities, and the breadth of roles available in the sector, helps attract women. Many women who participated in focus groups for our research shared their pride and sense of purpose in helping people travel safely. As one said:
'We have a profound purpose. We build and upgrade stations and that impacts people’s lives. Whether it’s accessible rails, elevators, different pick-up points for parents, it is life changing and there is an impact in the community.’
- Promoting Customer Service Skills: Promoting skills such as customer service and communication in job advertisements helps attract a broader talent pool.
- Innovative Outreach Programs: These include partnerships with schools, universities, industry organisations and high-profile national women’s sporting organisations (such as the AFLW), as well as targeted media campaigns to attract women.
Targeted campaign to improve gender diversity:
Metro Trains' recruitment campaign to attract women train drivers is one successful example of increasing gender diversity. In 2009, women train drivers represented less than five per cent of drivers. That has increased to 37 per cent in 2023. Elina Islamova from Metro Trains highlighted the success of the initiative.
“The campaign around women train drivers worked really well. It was targeted recruitment that helped attract more women drivers. We have done a lot of stories on this to profile women and give potential future employees an idea that is a pathway you can take.”
What’s just as essential as the focus on recruitment is the commitment to inclusive workplace cultures. That’s key to retain and develop women into leadership positions.
Supportive practices to retain and develop women
- Education on Respectful Behaviours: This is an increasing feature of some organisations’ training programs and – given the types of exclusionary behaviours and gender role stereotypes that continue to be experienced by many women – must be a priority for all organisations in the rail industry. This can be achieved through programs, communications and events by organisations and industry associations.
- Male Allies and Sponsors: Male leaders who actively promote diversity and inclusion play a key role. They can support opportunities for high potential women through job rotations, lateral appointments and shadowing senior leaders on major projects.
- Mentoring and Networking Programs: Programs that connect women within the industry are highly valued. Employee resource groups can also drive meaningful change by fostering communities with shared experiences. These initiatives appear particularly important in this sector because our research identified lower levels of psychological safety experienced by women across the sector.
- Flexible Working Practices: Promoting the use of flexible working arrangements that support employees of all genders to balance work with other responsibilities, including caring responsibilities (in both frontline and non-frontline roles) is essential.
- Equitable Facilities and Amenities: Having gender equitable facilities and amenities on sites and stations is a foundation for greater diversity.
Small Gestures, Big Impact
While these factors help drive broader organisational and industry change, it’s also important to recognise the positive impact of small, relatively new, and tangible symbols of inclusion in workplaces in the rail sector – for employees and passengers.
Some people who participated in our research shared how visibility of people with gender pronouns helps them feel safer at work. Rainbow lanyards and badges help promote inclusion. Some customer service staff in rail organisations that are part of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower network have been trained to help passengers with invisible disabilities and wear Sunflower supporter badges to show their familiarity with the program.
This is an exciting sector and an exciting time to work in the sector with significant infrastructure investment and 70,000 jobs to be filled over the next decade. As one woman who participated in our research said:
‘I thought rail would be quite old fashioned, but it’s so fast-paced and innovative. You can see projects happening everywhere.’
The practices here will help make Australasia’s rail sector fast-paced, innovative and inclusive.
Report links
To read more about these supportive practices, including examples of organisations in Australia and globally that have implemented innovative programs, please download our report here.