Thomas the Tank Engine, that is…
Thomas the Tank Engine is sending out the wrong message to children and needs more female engines to encourage girls to become train drivers, Labour’s shadow transport secretary has said.
Mary Creagh said the lack of female train drivers in Britain was a “national scandal” and that the “negative stereotypes” seen in children’s shows were partly to blame.
Where do these cretins come from? People do not decide to go into train driving because of Thomas the Tank engine. I guess if I was to go into the mess room of one of my clients (a major TOC) and ask the boys and girls there if Thomas was the reason they signed up, I’d be greeted with roars of laughter and never be taken seriously again – and deservedly so. Train driving – along with signalling and track work – is traditionally a male dominated role; just as nursing, for example is a female dominated role. There is nothing – absolutely nothing – preventing women from joining the ranks of signallers and train drivers or men becoming nurses and plenty do. That they are in the minority is not some conspiracy of sexism, they choose not to enter the profession. What is this daft bat going to do, force them?
Mrs Creagh suggested train companies could recruit more female drivers by advertising in magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Women’s Own and by offering more flexible, part-time work.
I don’t know about their advertising, but when it comes to work patterns, the major players have very flexible arrangements when it comes to family commitments – although I am inclined to ask what about everyone else in the roster who has to pick up the slack when someone is put on a special family-friendly rota, but that is probably sexist or something.
According to the Telegraph, the mother-of-two said: ”There is a preponderance of men in the transport industry and I am very keen to unpack some of the myths that stop women from taking up what are often highly paid and highly skilled jobs.“
The biggest myth – that there is something preventing them because of sexism – is the one being peddled by the professional grievance mongers. The myth that it is the fault of childrens’ television shows is so risible that ridicule is the only reasonable response. There are plenty of women in the rail industry, many of them in influential positions and they got there by their own merit, which is as it should be. Their numbers are irrelevant – no one has pulled up a ladder and no one is holding closed any doors.
I recall the Railtrack days when we had seven zones and six of the HR managers were female. I applied for a training job in our HR department but was passed over for a woman. Was that sexism? Should I have complained? Why aren’t there more men in HR departments? For, it is there that you will find many of the women in the rail industry – and in training and development, which is my area of expertise.
The rail industry is welcoming to anyone who applies and has the relevant aptitude to do the job – despite what Labour feminists might argue.
Note that she cites train driving, which still has some glamour attached to it, rather than track or platform work. There are in fact large numbers of women working on stations and in booking offices but few on the track, a situation that is common with the heavy jobs that are left in industry. Women aren’t attracted to them. Signalling still has some residue of this as it was always seen as a physically demanding job, which wasn’t really true otherwise I couldn’t have done it and also the image of the lone bobby in his remote cabin is something with more appeal to men than women. This is no longer typical of the job of course but it takes time for new images to become widespread.
But really I’m treating this with more seriousness than it deserves, the abysmal level of intellectual argument in modern politics is rather revealing, is this what all that higher education produces ? People who should have gone out to work at sixteen and never bothered the rest of us.
We are both giving her more credit than she deserves. What her pathetic little outburst deserved was a derisory snort.
“Note that she cites train driving, which still has some glamour attached to it, rather than track or platform work. “
You know what else is an overly male-dominated role? Sewage workers.
Hop to it, Mary… 😉
And dust
menpersons, street sweepers… I could go on…What WOULD the Rev. Audry have said? Something impolite about PPE graduates, I would hope.
PPE graduates who become politicians like to pontificate on subjects about which they know nothing. This is a prime example.
Do PPE graduates ever become anything else?
OK, maybe “Benefits Claimants”, but in over 46 years of work (at all levels), I’ve never knowingly encountered a PPE graduate.
@Thornavis yes, it’s dirty work and there is no makeup mirror.
I wonder how often Mary Creagh checks the pressure on her car tyres.
I’ll give £20 to Greenpeace if that stupid clunge has done it even once.
What brainless flanges like Mary Creagh fail to understand is that many men don’t get it either. Some men can do it. Some men try, and are lousy at it, but still try. Some men tinker and are aware of their limitations – they find another man who can (usually after a few libations) and get it done.
Then there are the others – can’t fix anything, manage their cars or houses, and give everything – no questions asked – to someone who’ll do it. With varying levels of satisfaction.
Did Mary Creagh study engineering, or do an apprenticeship? Of course she fucking didn’t, she did girly subjects. She has never had, to my knowledge, a real job, getting her hands dirty. Has she actually produced or repaired something that’s of utility to someone else, or is she a puling pudenda of platitudes? You be the judge.
I sometimes wish that I had the horny hands of a man who could deal with really heavy machinery – usually when a spanner lets go. I know I’m not a great mechanic – but I’m a damn sight better than most men. And here’s the thing – I don’t try to teach them. They’ve got it or they haven’t.
It curdles the chyme in my belly to think that I am feeding this waste of a woman’s body (although it’s really only organ value, TBH).
Why do these wretched, interfering, right-on MPs always have to have someone or something to “blame” for the problems associated with their pet projects? Quite apart from the fact that we’ve had equal ops legislation in place for several decades now and it’s – err – illegal for any employers to bar someone from whatever job they want on the basis of their sex alone, even if there might possibly be some vestiges of prejudice lurking around in any of the trades or professions, that would just be because there will always, no matter how much legislation is passed, be a few people who cling on to their old prejudices. I’m sure there’s a few closet racists and anti-semites around amongst employers, but the difference is that they are now in such a small minority that they aren’t able to express their views openly without receiving a barrage of criticism and, possibly, legal action. Ditto sexism. But none of that has anything to do with a series of children’s books. It’s typical of MPs’ particular brand of one-eyed hobby-horse riding that, for instance, I suspect she hasn’t noticed that as well as there being no female trains in the series, neither are there any ethnically-black, Asian, Muslim, Hindu or Jewish ones represented, either. Silly cow.
And who is the head of RAIB?
One Carloyn Griffiths, IIRC.
Tell this idiot to get stuffed.
Well, yes, precisely. There are several high flying women in the industry – including engineering and planning. They just don’t want to drive trains.
I read the first line of your piece and burst out laughing, then came the derisory snort..
Was I surprised no was I shocked and appalled no, I did ask myself if it was April the first, but no just another lefty loon with too much time on her hands who was obviously given a new wooden spoon for christmas by her constituency office.
Clearly she was looking for her 5 minutes of fame and thought this was it, what a dumb bint she is.
It’s a ‘national scandal’, though. A NATIONAL SCANDAL!
As a late entry to ‘hyperbole of the year’, this one’s a zinger.