Our volunteers are an integral part of our organisation and there are plenty of ways to get involved and help, from helping us making new connections, sharing ideas about future activities through to regular volunteering roles. We wouldn’t function without our dedicated team of volunteers that helps us run Women in Transport! Find out a bit more about volunteers and why they enjoy running the Scotland Hub of Women in Transport.
Read moreMember Insight: Clare Wood
Our member insight series is an opportunity to get to know some of our Women in Transport members. This month, we are featuring some of North East Hub volunteers. In this member insight, we showcase Clare Wood, Director at Turner & Townsend Infrastructure Project Management covering the Yorkshire and North East region.
Read moreBridging the Gender Gap in Micro-Mobility: Voi joins Women in Transport
Voi Technology is proud to be the first micro-mobility operator to join Women in Transport, to make the transport sector a better industry through diversity, gender parity, and inclusion. According to data from the EU, only 22% of transport workers are women, and we want to encourage women to leave their mark on what continues to be a male-dominated field.
Read moreYour opportunity to take part in groundbreaking research
Would you like to take part in our groundbreaking research to help us gain a better understanding of women working in the transport industry? Can you spare ten minutes to take part in our anonymous survey and share your experiences and perceptions? As part of our role as Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Women in Transport, we are researching women’s experiences and perceptions of working in the transport industry.
Read moreImproving your resilience and wellbeing using your strengths
Gill How - Leadership Development Consultant
2020 was certainly a challenging year for most of us. The arrival of the pandemic in March turned many a life upside down, often causing anxiety, stress and uncertainty around our work, relationships and health. It was a time, more than ever, when we needed to develop resilience. So, the generous offer from Gill How of a workshop on this topic to support our members was very welcome indeed.
Read moreLet's focus on the positive!
I’m currently reading our next book club read - How Women Rise. It’s a great read and talks about how focusing on things that lie within your control can help improve your situation and clear your path to success whereas focusing on external factors that aren’t in your control can be an exercise in frustration. On that note, we can’t change the pandemic but at Women in Transport we have taken some positive steps in 2020 to support our members and to ensure the future of our network.
Read moreResilience and looking after yourself in challenging times
As we emerge from our second lockdown and face restrictions into the spring, Susan Heaton Wright's generous offer to support our Women in Transport community with a workshop on resilience and looking after ourselves in challenging times, was very timely and very welcome.
Read moreShaping Zero: Towards net zero carbon for infrastructure
On 3 November, Rachel Skinner, one of the founder members of Women in Transport and our Patron, became the 156th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and marked the start of her year with ICE's first ever fully-virtual Inaugural Address. Rachel spoke passionately about just one issue: Net-Zero Carbon and the need for civil engineers to act together, urgently, to help reduce carbon emissions and therefore address climate change.
Read moreWomen in Transport signs ‘Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Charter’ to support diversity across the sector
Women in Transport is delighted to be a signatory of the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Charter’ which has just been launched jointly by The Railway Industry Association (RIA) and Women in Rail (WR) to champion equality, diversity and inclusion in the UK railway industry. The joint charter is a commitment to work together to build a more balanced higher performing sector and has been backed by over 100 organisations.
Read moreAn audience with Rowan Joachim - Head of Engineering at London Overground
One of the primary objectives of Women in Transport is to shine a light on the wonderful range of career opportunities in the transport sector. Another is to inspire our members with role models who have succeeded in some of these careers and overcome the inevitable challenges along the way. So we were delighted when Rowan Joachim, Head of Engineering at London Overground, generously offered to speak to our members online about some key moments in her 20 year career in the transport industry.
Read moreBullying in the Workplace
Since we launched the chat sessions back in April, we have covered a wide range of topics including the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the progress of ED & I, the role of male allies, how women can help each other advance their careers and whether remote working is the way forward. On 21 October members got together online to talk about Bullying in the workplace and how we can call it out.
Read morePersonal Pronouns in the Workplace: A Beginners Guide
Wednesday 21 October 2020 is International Pronouns Day. It seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace. Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity. Being referred to by the wrong pronouns particularly affects transgender and gender nonconforming people.
Read moreAlien in the room
With women significantly underrepresented in the transport workforce, there are often situations where we are the ‘alien in the room’. Even if this hasn’t been your personal experience, I hope that reading Charlie’s latest blog will provide some insight into how it feels to be the minority in a room and offers a moment of reflection on how we can all be more inclusive.
Read moreThe most dangerous word is 'just'
Safe & the City is launching a new campaign to drive reporting of sexual harassment and raise funds for tools that will make it easier for charities and other organisations to act on reports.
The campaign - The Most Dangerous Word is ‘Just’ - centres on the fact that millions of incidents of harassment are minimised, not reported, as we tell ourselves, and others reinforce it, that it was ‘just’ a comment or ‘just’ a joke.
Read moreA fantastic opportunity to broaden my network and get some fresh perspectives
Applications for Advance 2021, the mentoring programme designed for women in transport, launch on 1 October 2020. In this blog, Women in Transport member, Charlie Barnes, shares her experience of being an Advance 2020 mentee and the benefits of getting a fresh perspective on challenges that you’re facing to advance your professional development.
Read moreMaking working at home work better
We've probably all become very familiar with working from home but are we working at our best? Are we being productive and efficient? Are we enjoying our day or are our stress levels going through the roof?
To find out how we can make working from home work better, we were delighted to get some guidance, in a fun interactive webinar led by Iain Smith, Women in Transport board member and founder of Network for Skills. Christine Hurley reports on the webinar.
Read moreVital to retain and attract diverse talent post-Covid, say industry leaders
Retaining existing talent and attracting a diverse range of people to avoid future skills shortages were key points discussed at the latest Infrastructure Intelligence Covid Recovery webinar, at which our President, Katie Hulland, was a panel member.
A major focus on both retaining existing talent and attracting a diverse and creative range of new people into the industry to avoid future skills shortages emerged as the key talking points at the latest Infrastructure Intelligence webinar on Friday 31 July 2020. “Post-Covid: the skills challenge for construction”.
Read moreMaking a Virtual Impact
When working remotely became the new normal for many of us, one of the immediate changes was that team meetings and client calls became online experiences. While we may have got to grips with the technology involved in meeting via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, getting our message across effectively online can still present many challenges.
Susan Heaton-Wright, a communications and speaking coach, who specialises in helping people to make an impact in both virtual and real life conversations, recently ran a highly interactive virtual masterclass for our members which was jam-packed with hints and tips on making an impact in online.
Read moreManaging a psychologically fit team remotely
Working from home definitely has its advantages, such as giving up our daily commute and spending more time with our families. But it's not all good news as working alone can result in loss of focus and, combined with isolation and feelings of uncertainty about the current situation, can adversely affect our productivity and mental wellbeing.
The role of the manager of a remote team in these difficult times is unprecedented, so we invited Mark Sharratt, a leadership development consultant, to run an online session for our members providing guidance in managing a productive and psychologically fit team.
Read moreBreaking down the barriers to cycling on World Bicycle Day
On World Bicycle Day, Women in Transport member Joanna Ward shares her experience of being a ‘new’ returning bike user and the worries and concerns that can bring, tackling common barriers and sharing advice on how to to overcome these concerns to help you ‘get on your bike’.
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