Thomas The Tank Blamed.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529783/Thomas-Tank-Engine-blamed-lack-female-train-drivers-engines-male-says-Labour-minister.html

And to think that this woman is the Shadow Transport Secretary, how do such persons manage to rise to these high positions?

What next a cry for more black characters?

Eh? just had a thought there are no women 'Fat Controllers' also is that another reason for women no attaining higher positions in the rail industry?

[youngmafbog]

The woman has lost the plot. I'm sure there are women all over the country thinking 'why?'

I suspect she would like to see more in comfortable shoes too, preferably black and clutching a Koran.

[paddywak]

Secondary roles or bossy, seems about right

[anotheoldgit]

mushroom25

/// actually there are female "fat controllers" - although they tend not not be fat...///

And how could you possibly know that from just one example?.

[anotheoldgit]

humbersloop

/// my evil twin made me do it...///

Don't tell me that there is yet another almost identical to you?

[mushroom25]

//And how could you possibly know that from just one example?. //

I work in the industry. trust me.

[humbersloop]

no aog



my evil twin makes me tell lies too

[anotheoldgit]

mushroom25

/// I work in the industry. trust me. ///

And what industry is that, Slimmer's World?

[Gromit]

There is no readon why women cannot drive trains as well as men. The fact hat such a low percentage of drivers is worth examining.

I am not sure she is correct to blame the Thomas childrens series. But the stereotype presents for children could be to blame. A trainset is seen as a boys toy and little girl would be bought a dolls house or baking set.

I have tried to research the source of this story to find out what she actually said without the Mail / Telegraph angle. I have been unable to find where and when she said it. Nothing on her website, nothing in Parliament, or any magazine interviews.

[jno]

it seems those who own the rights to the character agree with her and are working on more female characters.

Thomas is a desperately old-fashioned series, set in the 1940s and 1950s, and reflecting the attitudes of the times, with all the women needing men to take them places. If it hadn't been for Ringo reading them in the 1980s they'd have died a death long ago.

[youngmafbog]

//t seems those who own the rights to the character agree with her and are working on more female characters. //

I bet they are. Free publicity and more brass from more sales!

I can guarantee it has zilch to do wiv wimmins rights!

[Gromit]

The Thomas and friends series is pretty rubbish now. It has been sold to a US company and is produced using CGI in Canada.

It has been superceded by the fare better "Chuggington" which is British made and sold all over the world. It features modern trains and high profile female characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuggington

Will that results in more female train drivers in a couple of decades, I very much doubt it.

[Gromit]

Chuggington

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040BixC4WU4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// I have tried to research the source of this story to find out what she actually said without the Mail / Telegraph angle. I have been unable to find where and when she said it. Nothing on her website, nothing in Parliament, or any magazine interviews. ///

Must be Daily Mail/Telegraph lies once again then, I wonder if Professor Sauna Wilton is also lying?

[jno]

I can guarantee it has zilch to do wiv wimmins rights

It has to do with increasing their audience. A series that assigns second-class status to half of them is going to lose money.

[Gromit]

// Must be Daily Mail/Telegraph lies once again then //

Possibly. I like to view the source material myself and make up my own mind, not be told what to think by the Mail/Telegraph.

The report does not say when she made her remarks. Who she said them to. Does not say if it was in Parliament, on a website, in an article or an interview. It gives no context or tells who her audience was. Which is piss-poor reporting.

[jomifl]

I thought it was every young girl's ambition to be a train driver, followed by being a ballet dancer....

[mushroom25]

//The fact that such a low percentage of drivers (are women) is worth examining. //

despite the good pay rewards there are many factors in play, led by the fact that because the industry operates 24/7, the working hours and complex shift patterns are very unsociable and disruptive. and despite the introduction of much modern rolling stock, the environment is still hostile and perceived as dirty.

[pixie373]

She certainly has a point. My friends and i noticed it at a very young age and many years later i told my very young son that women were allowed to drive trains. He was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and didn't really believe me. If we teach them that at 2, we have to undo it later.

[mushroom25]

//many years later i told my very young son that women were allowed to drive trains. //

not sure when you talked to your son, but it was certainly true that women could not be train drivers until the sex discrimination act of 1975. the first woman footplate staff appeared in 1977 and those pioneers were generally militants whose applications were politically motivated.

[DTCwordfan]

Knickers off ready and into the Fireboxes........

Good grief - it must be Christmas. But given Labour's underinvestment in transport infrastructure, most-likely there would be no trains anyway, so male or female drivers out there, you may as well queue up at the Job Centre if you vote the shower in, this Minister typical of the lack-of-common sense in the current Millipede troop........