Marie Daly: Chair's Weekly Blog

I was fortunate to attend the SWIFT event with Bernadette Kelly Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport kindly hosted by 普华永道 . It was a great evening listening to Bernadette authentically share her journey and her reflections on what lessons Rail could learn from the gender diversity improvements in the DfT over last 15 years. #powerfulwomen #rolemodels Shamit Weinberger Gaiger OBE thank you for your tireless work to make sure SWIFT continues to have the impact it was created to deliver and as always shout out to the sponsors of SWIFT Newsom Consulting Ltd .

It was great to see the Women in Rail banner and our trustees out about across the industry promoting how Women in Rail can support the industry and each business in our common objective in driving forward the gender equity. Terri Cave even had support from her dog Winston at the Network Rail Technical authority conference on the 23rd May. Sharon Salmon MBE (she/her) presenting at the Machtech event last month, powerfully sharing her experiences to create connections and better understanding of the issues women from face during their career journeys.

Hopefully you would have been able to join Women in Rail Yorkshire for their ‘Lunchtime Learning for Leaders’ event yesterday. If not, the book is definitely worth a read. This virtual lunch and learn session focused on positive leadership and confidence from the author of ‘Lunchtime Learning for Leaders’ and “Revolting Women” Leadership Coach, Dr Lucy Ryan. Another great example of how we as industry need to understand the data gaps that exist. It was also a great reminder for Women that at any age we can add value to any organisation. Last week finding the energy each day just to “be me” was a struggle and that is the main issue with Menopause for me. I don’t know when this will happen and the unpredictably often knocks my confidence. I am lucky to work somewhere where I can openly discuss how this impacts me. WR want to make sure every workplace is supporting women during all phases of their life, including menopause. WR aims to do this by ensuring employers have the required policies, training and culture to attract, support and retain women at all levels in the business and all times of their career journey. So, thank you to our Yorkshire regional team and Dr Lucy Ryan

It was good to speak to Matthew Atkins from Rail staff this week as part of their diversity and inclusion edition, sharing the work WR have done over the last year. It is always good to reflect on how far we have come as well as the work still to do ??

There are four pillars to the WR business plan. The first is to attract, and Pride month gives all employers the opportunities to demonstrate to colleagues, customers and future generations how inclusive they are and how proud they are to celebrate the LBGQT+ community. I have loved seeing all the posts from across the industry from sponsored swimming events to seeing our lovely trains wrapped. I am proud to attend the TfW parade each year and look forward to sharing widely the content from Cardiff and Shrewsbury parades later this month.??

We are delighted to share that we have two dates for our corporate member working group session to develop the gender equity checklist.

My last meeting of the week for my WR role was with Joss Apps and Dermot Kelly CEng MICE FPWI from the Permanent Way institution to discuss their seminar in November in Nottingham, “Light Rail & Trams for a Sustainable, Carbon-Neutral Tomorrow”. We discussed how WR can work with the institute to engage leaders from this great part of the industry to collectively address the challenge to the attract greater diversity to the industry #likemindedpeople #drivechange#genderequity UKTram .

Marie Daly