WOMEN IN RAIL
In January 2023, I was commissioned by Transwilts as a part of Great Western Rail and Community Rail, to create 12 illustrations to explore the theme ‘Women in Rail’. These 12 illustrations were printed onto di-bond boards and displayed in 3 stations in Wiltshire along the Swindon to Westbury service route. These stations included Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Chippenham. A diverse range of other local artists were commissioned to create pieces for the other stations along this route.
My approach with this project was to look at some of the roles within railway work held by women and how these may have changed over the years as this line of work slowly becomes more inclusive of female and gender non conforming staff members. Women have significantly contributed to the railway system in the UK since the start, on hand and also behind the scenes, but there is unfortunately still plenty of inequality. This project hopes to bridge that gap and focus on the amazing achievements and contributions from women now as well as in the past.
I started by looking at the history of women in rail, at lot of which focused on the 2 world wars, where men were sent off to fight and resultantly women were taking on more and more hands-on roles. In 18 months, during the First World War, 34,000 women were engaged, as clerks, carriage cleaners, goods porters, receptionists, refreshment room staff, ticket collectors, engine cleaners, waiting room attendants, operators of lifts, cranes, and many other pieces of machinery. For the first 2 sets of images I focused on a side by side comparison of a war-time scene and a modern day, to show how these scenes may have changed but women’s contributions to rail have always been prevalent.
For the last set of images, I wanted to moved away from the war and look at further progress around the 1970’s, where for example, the first female train driver was employed, and women took on more admin roles behind the scenes helping everything to run more smoothly. And then comparing this to today’s work to see how women are fighting to only improve this further and continue to make the workplace more of an inclusive community!
As well as being printed and displayed on di-bond boards amongst the 3 stations, 6 of the illustrations were picked to be printed as part of a colouring book to give additional attention to the project! This colouring book is available to purchase through my shop, (limited copies).
