"The Equal Pay Act 1970 (following successful industrial action by female sewing machinists at Ford), and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made it possible for women like me to apply for footplate grade employment on BR in the late seventies.
Despite this there were pockets of strong resistance, and on my initial application to Waterloo I was informed that there was a ‘waiting list’ that I could have my name added to. I agreed to this and waited and waited… Eventually I decided to contact Victoria, and a clerk in the Depot Master’s Office there arranged an interview for me for the following week. It was only when I was approached by a senior BR manager whilst on my Traction Trainee Course that I realised that in fact there was no ‘waiting list’ at Waterloo depot, but the Depot Master of the time was blocking all applications made by ‘blacks and women’ to footplate grade positions.
My interview at Victoria was conducted by three senior managers, two of whom were the Depot Master and the head of the driver training school. Questions were mainly personal: did I have a boyfriend?, was I planning on getting married?, did I want children?, did I ever have painful periods that caused me to take time off work?…
I was then told how dangerous the job was and that drivers were killed in service every year, before being asked if I still wanted the job. When I replied that I did, one of the interviewers curtly told me ‘go for your medical then’.
I was placed at Norwood Junction depot in South London where I fitted in quite well. Unusually for those days, Norwood Junction already had a black driver and a outwardly gay driver so I was just another minority group member to add to the mix.
Although by law BR had to admit women to the footplate grade, no provision had been made for this and so I found myself at times in quite a vulnerable position. Additionally repeated requests for a uniform were met with ‘no, you’ll only get pregnant and leave’, and in the early months there was not even a women’s toilet at the depot, so I was forced to walk through the yard to Selhurst depot where the women carriage cleaners had a toilet I could use.
Eventually a toilet was provided for me at Norwood depot, and the uniform issue was forced following a nasty incident on a football train, when the driver was accused of having his ‘bit of stuff’ on the engine and said driver returned to depot and reported that he wouldn’t work with me again until I had a proper uniform. A customised uniform arrived at my home by special delivery very soon afterwards.
As you can probably gather, in those early days everything that should have been a given had to be fought for.
Despite the always present background struggle to be treated as my male colleagues, in the main, I settled into and very much enjoyed my secondmanning days.
After three and a half years and 500 turns of duty as a secondman I was eligible to attend the South Side driver training school at Waterloo, which was by then my depot. I was once again a lone female on my course, and although my own group were accepting of me the same could not be said for a few drivers on a conversion course which ran during part of the time I was at the school. One individual in particular would follow me around in the lunch break telling me I was a token woman and saying ‘you don’t think they’ll ever really let a woman drive a train do you?’.
Over time this began to drag me down and my demeanour changed to the point where the head ofthe training school noticed and took me to one side for a chat. He’d guessed what was going on.
Following route learning I was soon out driving in my own right. Whilst colleagues were adjusting to having a female driver in their midst the public took a little longer. On one of my first driving turns I was to work an early morning train around the Kingston loop. A man wearing a suit and bowler hat tapped on my cab window with his black umbrella prior to our departure and wanted to know if I’d be driving. When I replied that I was he said that in that case he wouldn’t be getting on the train!
Once I became established I experienced very little outright prejudice, but surprisingly the worst two incidents following qualification both came from training school instructors. On my 508 course my instructor kept me back after sending all the men on the course home, and I was made to couple and uncouple the units over and over again. He justified this by saying ‘with you I have to be absolutely sure you can do it’. This despite the fact I’ve never had problems coupling/ uncoupling units.
The second, and by far the worst, incident happened after I’d transferred to Salisbury depot and was sent on a Class 47 locomotive course. By this time I’d been on the footplate for thirteen years. The course instructor made no secret of his disapproval of women driving trains, and in the classroom had numerous digs at me and often ignored me or was dismissive of me. What I didn’t expect though was the verbal onslaught I encountered on a static day on a loco at Tonbridge. I arrived after the others as I’d been unwell in the morning and as soon as I climbed on the loco the instructor put me in the driving seat and started firing questions at me. I was stunned into panicked silence and in front of the other drivers the instructor launched a vicious verbal attack on me; ‘why don’t you know?, because you’re a fucking stupid woman! - then ‘fucking stupid woman’ over and over again.
Could any of you see this happening today?
Rome wasn't built in a day, and we’ve still got a way to go, but attitudes to women drivers have changed out of all recognition to those early days. If unenlightened individuals retain their prejudices, these days they must keep them to themselves for fear of the consequences. We each and every one of us make a difference if we tackle bigots as we encounter them.
I’m sorry that due to injuries following a fall I can’t be there with you all this evening but I hope you have a wonderful time.
Annie Rutter
Salisbury Driver and Salisbury ASLEF Branch Secretary."