Why more and more women are choosing a career in rail. Last week at 2XM Recruit we hosted our first Women in Rail event in our Sydney office. It was fantastic to be joined by so many professionals in the rail community to discuss such an important topic.

Alongside enjoying speeches and Q&A opportunities from special guests; Charlotte Stanfield, Jac McLaurin-Lloyd (McLloyd), Malaeka Nadeem, Samantha McWilliam, and Geraldine Williams IGC, NHC, the event offered a chance for people to come together, to network, to give community support, and to have eye-opening conversations with one another.

“It was so great to see so many people who share the passion in promoting the need for more women in the industry,” said Megan Grace who organised the event alongside Louise Palmer. “We chose to organise this event because, although diversity in the rail industry is improving, there is still a considerable amount of work needed to achieve true equality. It’s vital we continue to champion women who are setting new standards in the industry and empower others to consider it as a viable and rewarding career pathway,” Megan continued.

There is a big focus on increasing diversity within the rail industry across all of Australia. Last years’ ARA report showed that women now make up 24% of the rail workforce and 89% of the organisation who participated in the survey have formal policies to improve gender equity in their workforces.

“While it is good to see continued progress in the industry, further change is needed to achieve greater gender diversity in rail,” said ARA Chief Executive Officer Caroline Wilkie.

At 2XM Recruit we hope this will be the first of many more Women in Rail events to come. Thank you to our wonderful speakers and all those who attended and showed support. We look forward to seeing you all – and some new faces – at the next event.

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