Women in Rail Awards 2022

[MagpiePi]

womeninrail.org/awards/categories/

I was alerted to this awards event through work and was a bit surprised to see a category for 'Inspirational Man of the Year'. I emailed the organisers and was told that it is important to celebrate our allies.

Why does this make me feel so disappointed?

Can women only achive if they have a stamp of approval from men? Or are men going to have their feelings hurt if they are excluded?

You're right. Nothing counts unless it includes men. Forget that women were excluded from employment by the rail industry for generations. Back in the 70s and 80s Karen Harrison struggled to become the first female train driver in the UK and met opposition wherever she went.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Harrison

Women are allowed nothing for themselves. Shame on the event organisers.

A man who has gone out of his way to support women in rail deserves recognition I think.
I’m ok with this, as long as the women who win awards are actually women.

@aliasundercover

A man who has gone out of his way to support women in rail deserves recognition I think. I’m ok with this, as long as the women who win awards are actually women.

This^

it might encourage more men to be supportive if they get awards for it

Trouble is doesn't that just confirm: women get equality from men only by pandering to and stroking men? And to be allowed anything they have to make sure it is in some way useful and rewarding to men?

Which just reaffirms in everyone's minds: females are the second class service humans, the world is in the gift of men and everyone's ok with this?

Strikes me there’s also no award for a woman that has been in the industry more than 3 years and is just seriously good at her job. Which in a male dominated industry with some tough engineering roles it’s a shame to have them ignored

The female inspirational award is same as the males and they have to promote gender diversity so performative diversity.

Most depressing of all the Adeline Ginn award emphasises stereotypical ‘caring and be kind’ messages. There’s nothing wrong with being caring obviously but just once it would be nice for women engineers to be recognised for being smart rather than ‘womaning’ in a socially acceptable way.

The Adeline Ginn Women in Rail Award

Recognition of an “unsung hero”. This Award will be nominated by the Women in Rail team.

Criteria: Someone in the UK railway industry:
Who has gone above and beyond his/her/their day job to support others – individuals or communities
Who has made an exceptional contribution to others – individuals or communities – and demonstrated outstanding kindness, care and compassion, acting as an inspiration to others
Who has continued to work tirelessly, contributing to helping recovery of the railway serving passengers and customers
Who has gone over and above support their colleagues working in operational roles
Who carried on in their substantive operational roles, but also undertook other voluntary activities to support their local community.

While I understand your POV, OP, it may be more of a positive than a negative. My reaction is tempered by hoping the award goes to someone like a bloke who (I think) was chosen in a Times 'person of the year' selection - a rail employee who succeeded in getting his rail company to provide free tickets for women and their children escaping from domestic violence. That sort of person - doing something unflashy but really practical - I'd be happy to see get this award.

The 'definition' (or meaningless dogs breakfast thereof) of what constitutes a man or woman for these awards, otoh....

I know someone very closely tied to Women in Rail and unless they have suddenly changed over night they are not an ally of women. I was surprised when they announced they were associated with this group.

Sorry to drop that in, but I couldn’t help commenting.

It’s vaguely reminiscent of PSNI’s IWD Awards Fiasco in 2020.

“Well done for tripping over that bar lads rather than tunnelling under it…”

Men shouldn’t need awards - or any other kind of inspiration or motivation - to just be decent humans.

Can you imagine Awards for any other systemically oppressed group having a category, for, eg, “least racist white person”? You’d hope straight people wouldn’t expect “allyship” awards when their LGB colleagues were being honoured.

The Awards are meant to be for & about women. If they really absolutely need to pat someone on the head for their lack of misogyny, they could have awards for supportive colleagues & include one specifically for supporting female staff.

This, though? Neither the time nor the place.

So, of those first 5 categories of Awards for Women one is only for men and a second is for man and women.

Then there are the Team/Corporate Awards. For organisations that make the workplace nicer, include sumink summink about gender and diversity in the 'broader sense'; only TWO of which mention female talent specifically.

So 10 awards given out by an organisation called Women in Rail and only 50% of them mention women specifically and only 2 are actually for women.

And some here want to say how nice it is that men are being given the chance to do, are being included in, might see something they haven't seen before or some other such summink summink

All I see is yet anther organisation that cannot do what it says on the bloody tin. Oh, my mistake. The tin says 'broader diversity' and At Women in Rail and SWiFT, the words “woman”, “women” and “female”, when used by the team, span the nine protected characteristics, including age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability and sexual orientation, as well as broader behavioural and background diversity, such as thinking and personality types, socio-economic background and life experience and include women who are transitioning and non-binary people.

So, gender not sex leads to 'women' actually meaning 'everyone'. Not for women at all then!

And what the fuck is a woman in a broader behavioural context?

If only I knew some women, real ones, that work in rail...

I believe the woman’s awards also cover those who ID as women. I think so - there are also some women in architecture awards that do the same.

@CuriousaboutSamphire brava! [Applauds]

At Women in Rail and SWiFT, the words “woman”, “women” and “female”, when used by the team, span the nine protected characteristics, including age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability and sexual orientation, as well as broader behavioural and background diversity, such as thinking and personality types, socio-economic background and life experience and include women who are transitioning and non-binary people.

This might be my favourite definition of woman so far. "Woman" means, well, everyone really.

I think they actually missed out… ‘women’

If a woman wins, that could be challenged on the basis she was ineligible.

I've worked on the railway for 18 years and never heard of these awards 🤦‍♀️

I’ve never heard of these awards either.

I will be hugely surprised if a woman wins anything.

Although they might let one win something just to show how inclusive they are…

Lol

I like the way the man award is listed before the woman one!

Reminds me of that company in ?India who said this year IWD let's celebrate men!

@MarciaDidia

If a woman wins, that could be challenged on the basis she was ineligible.

Ooh! I think we should keep an eye on this, see how many spanners we can throw in their works 😆

Can anyone tell me how to behave as a woman? I would like an award and not won any so far, I fear it’s because I’m not broadly behaving like a woman. How can I let them know that I am actually a woman?

@WellThatsMeScrewed

I understand there are badges available for the purpose…