Thank you Trains Magazine

[Mookie]

I so thoroughly enjoyed the article in June Trains - "Boomer in a Boom Town".

I was so engrossed in reading it that when I got done, I looked down to see if I had dirt on my shirt! I felt like I was right there with her. Now I wish I had been.

For those of you unlucky enough to not have the Trains - it is about a woman in 1979 working for the SP Railroad. She ended up in Houston and also worked for 20 years for the railroads.

Now, what I want is definitely some input from some of you "older" railroaders that were around when women started working the railroads and also maybe someone out there that was a "boomer". Also our resident Houstonian, Mr B.

It is a fascinating article, even for a novice like me!

Mookie

[edblysard]

Hi Mookie,
I read it too, in fact, I re-read it again last night, and came away with a healthy respect for the lady.
When I joined up, it was scary and I was nervous as all get out, so I can imagine what it would be like for a woman back in 79.

Railroaders have cleaned up their image a little, but thats due to the change in discrimination laws, and the fact that most men get embarassed when women get a peek into the locker room and see how much like adolscents they are.
Most of the pin ups have come down.

The author's description of Houston in the late 70s early 80s is dead on, it was a boom town, where pretty much anything goes, and oil and its associated business made money hand over fist.
Her account of living in the rather dingy downtown hotel, and the fact that she never really knew where she was in the city, except when she was on the train, is very true.

By the time I was through reading her story, I could smell the creosote, hear the flanges squeal, and feel the train sway.
She should, I hope, continue to write more articles for Trains.
Its a hard industry for men to break into, toughter still for a lady.

Ed

[tree68]

The June issue is very good reading. I sat down to supper (at the mall) after buying my copy and got so engrossed in the story about Rougemere that I suddenly realized I had places to go and things to do. Everything else is just as good.

Salute!

[Mookie]

I agree - I thoroughly enjoyed the whole issue ! And a lot of it is due to the fact that I have learned so much on this forum! Thank you all for that!

Mook

[CShaveRR]

I remember a few females in our ranks through the years. Most of the guys would go out of their way to help them out. We currently have a female working as a car retarder operator; she does every bit as well as the guys with her experience level (and she was a good switchperson, also).

I'm glad our Trains writer kept personalities out of this article...she got raked over the coals a bit after her first one. I wish I could write that eloquently, though...and hope there are more experiences that she'll let us all in on.

[pmsteamman]

I need to go get this issue. Rougemere is my away terminal.

[UPTRAIN]

I am a fan of that article...very good.

[Anonymous]

I too enjoyed that article.

I was suprised that it took until 1979 until the women started to make an appearence on the running trades...... must have been quite the adjustement for the men to make.

[jeaton]

I know that during WWII, the Illinois Central employed women on the Suburban Line. Don't know about freight operations though.

Not surprised at all that women can handle any RR job. In the 40's and 50's, I grew up on a small dairy farm and my mother was like most farm wives who worked just as hard at the chores as the men.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:
I know that during WWII, the Illinois Central employed women on the Suburban Line. Don't know about freight operations though.

They were most likely prompty layed off after the war, mind you.

[jeaton]

macguy-

That's affirmative.

[Anonymous]

Dangit! I'm only half way through the may issue! Between my responsibilities at home, work, 4 rr subscriptions, assigned work reading, ebay, and this forum- i may get to it by summer. Maybe I can break a cardinal rule and 'skip' to that article. Sounds interesting- those are some of the types of contributions I enjoy most.
Question: whats the percentage of women in rr jobs outside of management?

[Anonymous]

Good question! The EEOC has exact numbers at:

http://www.eeoc.gov/stats/jobpat/2000/sic3/401.html

which reveals it's 1.5% in the operating crafts, but about 40% in the clerical ranks.

This fits exactly with my experience at Kansas City Southern, where I worked, there were so few women in TY&E I can think of just one, off hand. However, of the 40 or so on the dispatcher's roster, there were three, one of them my wife. Most of the crew callers were women; that job comes out of the clerical ranks, traditionally.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mark, interesting site. I see that after sales, service workers, and professionals that women technicians hold roughly a one-to-9.5 ratio. Any thoughts there? I also noted that management positions were not what I would have guessed. And women in the craft category were the least- what does the craft worker category entail? Why do they list ethnicity? And at the bottom- what does participation rate mean?

[Anonymous]

1. I'm not sure how the various job descriptions correlate with the EEOC categories, but having a good idea of the numbers of railroad employees in each job description, it's a good bet that "craft workers" includes all the Train, Yard, and Engine service employees as well as the skilled shop crafts. "Operatives" will include most of the maintenance-of-way employees that are machine operators. "Laborers" will include the unskilled shop employees and unskilled maintenance-of-way employees. "Technician" will mostly be IT people and the like.

2. Ethnicity is listed because the EEOC is the federal agency charged with enforcing laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability. Note the substantial percentages of black and latino employees.

3. Participation is merely the percentage of each category in each column, as opposed to the raw numbers above. It's a fancy word for "percentage in each category."

[daveklepper]

The Humor page of the latest American Legion magazine has a very thoughtful and interesting commentary on this issue, presented as a joke but with lots of meaning, and I cannot do justice to it by any possible desription. If you manage to get a copy, you'll find the effort very, very worthwhile! Dave Klepper

[Mookie]

And - my favorite - "Sometimes the best man for a job is a woman!"