The United Nations has established the theme of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8th as count her in: invest in women. Accelerate progress.
While important progress has been made, women face significant obstacles to achieving equal participation in the economy.
Without equal access to education, employment pathways, financial services and literacy, how can we ever hope to reach gender equality?
Rail Express has worked closely with the industry to bring an important spotlight to IWD, exploring what different organisations will be doing on March 8th and the importance of the day to each company.
Queensland Rail
Queensland Rail are committed to a community where women can build confidence, enhance capabilities, connect and thrive. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate and recognise the contributions of its female colleagues across Queensland Rail and the value diversity brings.
Queensland Rail held a keynote speaker event on March 5th in which guests heard from Celeste Carnegie, a Birrigubba Juru (Burdekin and Bowen regions of North Queensland) and South Sea Islander woman and Manager of Community Programs & Engagement at Indigitek.
Carnegie is an advocate for women in technology and empowering young people to reach their goals in technology. Celeste creates spaces where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people come together to learn, innovate and create.
There are also various morning/afternoon teas and lunches happening across the business to recognise the importance of International Women’s Day.
Queensland Rail CEO Kat Stapleton said it has never been a moire exciting time to be a women in rail.
“We want to bridge the gap and foster inclusivity by recognising and celebrating the unique contributions of women to our workforce, in a non-traditional female industry,” she said.
“We have an incredibly bright and exciting future. Our population is growing, and our network is growing, too — giving us the opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. We are also getting set to be on the world stage for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“To support this growth, over the next 10 years, we will integrate additional patronage and more than $20 billion in new assets, including Cross River Rail. These new assets will help us to deliver world-class services for our customers.
“As our network grows, we will be able to deliver world-class services for customers, with more trains, more often. With that comes more complexity for our operations.
“At Queensland Rail, we need to build our future workforce and invite people from outside of rail to join us in the industry. This means ensuring we can make Queensland Rail a place that attracts women and that we do what we can to retain women.”
Queensland Rail’s workforce is made up of 26 per cent women. One-in-four leadership positions are filled by women. This is slightly ahead of the broader rail industry, but there is a lot more to be done.
Queensland Rail has just launched a wonderful QR Women Collective program, for all female employees, that provides opportunities for learning, showcasing our amazing talent and achievements, and making connections that count.
We also run a QR Women program, which focuses on growing and building high potential females. The goal of the program is to increase female retention and representation. It gives these employees access to inspirational guest speakers, networking opportunities and self-discovery workshops, over the course of a year.
Queensland Rail also supports female employees in the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) Women in Mentoring Program, ARA sponsored Women in Rising scholarship, Women in Engineering, gender inclusion community and encouragement to attend and participate in events such as the ARA Networking lunch.
Siemens
In alignment with this year’s UN International Women’s Day theme, Count Her In, Siemens Mobility has recognised the need to broaden its efforts for gender equity further than one day a year.
In turn, to ensure that the women within our organisation and industry – and those yet to join us – are supported and encouraged to strive for gender equity in their educational, career and financial endeavours, Siemens Mobility has created informative and insightful activities for the entire month of March that aim to engage its employees and support those less fortunate in both their professional and personal lives. These activities will include:
- In partnership with our superannuation partner, Russell Investments, to reinforce the financial support aspect of this year’s IWS theme, we are running finance awareness and empowerment sessions to discuss gender inequity in relation to financial earnings, superannuation, and its potential impacts on retirement, how we can aim to close the gap and the importance of seeking financial support. These sessions are designed with female employees and male allies of all ages in mind to ensure that all employees are aware of how their superannuation and retirement can be impacted by their gender and the choices they make now.
- A panel conversation made up of a gender balanced panel that represents leaders and technical professionals within our business, to discuss how we can champion and support our female colleagues in our workplace and industry now and in the future.
- Share inspiring career stories from women in Siemens Mobility that aim to attract more women to the rail industry by breaking down the myths and stereotypes through real experiences of what progression and career pathways are like for women in our industry.
- Support the drive for equal opportunities outside of our organisation by running a month-long clothes donation drive for our employees to donate corporate attire for less fortunate men and women who are entering or re-entering the workforce.
Raphaelle Guerineau, Country CEO for Siemens Mobility Australia & New Zealand explained the importance of the day for the organisation.
“At Siemens Mobility, we value genuine diversity and the innovation that it brings – the more people with different vantage points we have, the richer and more successful our business can become,” she said.
“Furthermore, creating gender equity is a part of this diversity. Our aim as an organisation is to build a culture and environment that reflects the communities in which we operate, ensuring everyone has access to the same opportunities, are treated fairly and are empowered to use their voice to harness their differences to create innovative, market leading customer solutions and grow our business.
“It is important to us that we create a workforce which is fully equipped at all levels to build and maintain a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment and culture.
“As the Country CEO for Australia & New Zealand and a woman in our industry, International Women’s Day acts as a reminder that we cannot waver in our efforts to create gender equity. It also represents a valuable opportunity to invest in the women in rail in every way possible so that future generations of rail professionals can enter an industry that is wholeheartedly committed to driving cultures and practices that embrace everyone, from every walk of life.”
ARA
The Women in Rail Strategy
The ARA has a Women in Rail Committee, founded in 2016, with the goal of developing a national strategy and action plan to achieve gender diversity across the industry. The group is also focused on improving the representation of women across industry and addressing systematic barriers preventing the success of women in the industry.
The ARA’s Women in Rail Strategy is guided by four strategic areas of focus:
Industry Knowledge – Measure successes and understand the issues
Organisational Impact – Encourage inclusive and respectful workplaces
Professional Development – Grow capacity and capability of women in rail
Promote Rail to Women – Increase female participation in rail
Gender Diversity report
As part of the Strategy, the ARA regularly conducts research to better understand barriers and opportunities to gender diversity in the rail industry.
We are shortly releasing new data from our fourth survey based on the Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency survey which shows a steady climb in female participation but that there is still a long way to go before we reach gender parity.
ARA-National Women in Transport research
The ARA has also partnered with National Women in Transport to engage Diversity Partners to conduct qualitative research into gender diversity in our industry. The research included a survey, focus groups and written submissions
and we will release those results in coming months.
Women in Rail Mentoring Program
One of the key initiatives of our Strategy is the Women in Rail Mentoring Program. The Program was established to support, guide and retain women working in rail through a tailored professional and leadership development program – applications have just been extended to March 22 and we are particularly looking for more mentees.
This year’s mentors are drawn from a wide pool of leading rail professionals from various rail organisations, including Alstom, Rio Tinto, Sydney Trains, Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction, Arup, John Holland, Downer, Arc Infrastructure and Aurecon.
Women in Rail Scholarships
The ARA has awarded eight women working in the rail industry professional development scholarships as part of its diversity and inclusion strategy.
Valued at $25,000 collectively, they aim to help female managers and executives progress their careers in rail. The CEW Leaders program is delivered by Chief Executive Women and is valued at $8,000. It is aimed at an executive-level woman wanting to accelerate her career and is a seven-day program delivered over seven non-consecutive days in three face-to-face blocks.
Women Rising is an online course of one to two hours a week, held from March to June next year, and is valued at $1,299. It is for mid-level managers wanting to develop their personal and professional leadership capabilities.
ARA CEO Caroline Wilkie explained the importance of the day to the ARA.
“I am incredibly proud of the work the ARA is doing to break down barriers for women in rail and create a more diverse and inclusive industry,” she said.
“Not only is this essential to the long-term sustainability of rail, but it is well known that diversity in the workplace drives improved performance and innovation.”
DT Infrastructure
To bring attention to the importance of this year’s IWD theme, Count her in, DT Infrastructure (DTI) hosted an internal panel event that discussed how it can optimise the recruitment and retention of women in the industry, in both trade and professional specialisms, and what it is doing as a business to improve the representation of women in construction overall.
It is also consulting with women at all levels and areas of expertise across (DTI) to establish a development program that focusses on creating leadership pathways for those who aspire to leadership roles in their careers. The culmination of this consultation progress will be a formalised program that will be implemented at a national level.
Thank you cards personally signed by the leadership team were also placed on the desks of women in our business as a small token of DT Infrastructure’s appreciation for the integral role they play in our success.
A spokesperson from DT Infrastructure explained the company’s commitment to celebrating the day.
“DT Infrastructure is deeply committed to fostering an inclusive workplace that values the contribution of all its people,” the spokesperson said.
“This year’s theme, Count her in, resonates strongly in our business and industry as it highlights the importance of economic empowerment to achieving gender equity. For us at DTI the way we are contributing to achieving this goal is by ensuring the women in our business have access to the same opportunities to progress and succeed in their careers as their male counterparts.
“We are doing this in several ways, from the way we attract, recruit, and retain the amazing women in our teams to creating an environment in both our offices and on our sites where women can thrive.”
Swietelsky
Swietelsky Rail Australia (SRA) focuses each day on promoting diversity, equality, and equity within our team. It is why it is proudly support initiatives like IWD. This year’s IWD theme closely aligns with SRA’s company values and practices. For example, SRA’s Sustainability Strategy 2023-2025 specifically targets increasing female participation within the business and rail industry, as well as other STEM-related industries.
SRA Managing Director, Anne Modderno, believes that International Women’s Day is about shining a spotlight on the inequity across the world pertaining to women and men being treated differently.
“For me, IWD is about disrupting the “niceness” and calling things out for what they really are – unfair,” Anne said.
“The SRA team and I will continue to support IWD until the event can be made redundant. This will be when we achieve genuine gender equality, remove gender bias, and have no gender pay gap.”
This IWD, SRA is supporting events to empower and support women achieve equality in the workplace. Starting with their attendance and prize sponsorship at the Equal Futures Project IWD breakfast event in Newcastle. This event celebrates International Women’s Day, champions equity and diversity, and this year will raise money for Zara’s House, a local charity supporting refugee women and children.
In addition, SRA has sponsored the local BoostHER Professional Development Event in Maitland on 19 March 2024. This event is a transformative half-day event dedicated to supporting and empowering women in leadership roles or those aspiring to lead, living up to this years’ IWD theme. Additional events are also planned for Newcastle (20 March) and Central Coast (11 April). The event will focus on providing practical insights and skills in personal leadership mindset, building confidence, personal branding, networking, and effective communication to foster professional growth.
The BoostHER event is a 5-hour introduction to the Women in Leadership Development Program run each year by Suzy Miller. While the program participants are female emerging leaders, the mentors are made up of both male and female leaders looking to hone their mentoring and coaching skills. The success of the program to date provides overwhelming evidence of the benefits on offer when working with both male and female mentors.
The SRA team have experienced first-hand the positive difference this program makes for the lives and professional careers of both participants and mentors and believes, yet another way SRA contributes to increasing female participation in the rail industry and other industries across all levels.
Moderno said that SRA’s involvement in IWD events this year is about supporting women in our workforces, but that there is more that we can all do to set up the future generations for success.
“As a parent, I regularly to talk to my kids about career pathways I know exist for them, that I did not know were possible when I was growing up and studying at school,” she said.
“Our language is so important. We all have an opportunity to not “gender badge” any role for our daughters, nieces and granddaughters (or for the boys).
“There are no “girls’ jobs” or “boys’ jobs” there are just jobs. The earlier our future generations can hear about what types of jobs and careers are out there for them, the less likely they are to be intimidated by any industry or doubt themselves in any way.
“Instead, they will be more likely to have the confidence to achieve anything, knowing they have their family’s support.”
Swietelsky’s Commercial and Finance Manager, Kyle Mathieson said that IWD “Gives everyone an opportunity to celebrate the key achievements made by women in our lives. It also serves as a reminder to recognise the progress made towards gender equality, while highlighting the work that still needs to be done to remove the obstacles faced by women.
“I want my daughters to understand that they can do anything they choose, and that in their future they will be paid the same as any male doing the same role,” he said.
Tickets are still available for BoostHER events happening in the Hunter and Central Coast here: BoostHER – Tickets
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