Media centre

Monday 8 Mar 2021

One of the country’s youngest station managers wants to inspire women to work in rail as she reflects on one year in the role

Region & Route:

Eastern: Anglia

Emma Watson used to travel into London Liverpool Street Station every day, and now she works for Network Rail, as one of the country’s youngest station managers, managing the station. As she nears one year in the role, an unprecedented year at that, and to coincide with International Women’s Day, she shares her experience of being a female manager in a historically male-dominated rail industry.

“I thoroughly enjoy working in rail, and I’m so proud of it too.”

Emma helps thousands of passengers to get to where they need to be every single day. She joined the railway industry by chance, after being made redundant and has been station manager for almost one year. She said, “I was temping locally after being made redundant when a friend from school told me where she was working. I asked if there were any jobs going and there began my journey as a data entry clerk in train planning – at the time, I had no idea people actually planned each train journey and it blew my mind.  This industry still surprises me on a daily basis.”

Emma loves her job, but it definitely wasn’t an easy start as she was thrown head-first into managing a station during a pandemic which has seen new rules, one way systems and measures to keep passengers safe. Emma explains that the support and expertise of her team, many of whom are also women, have helped her through. She said, “Going into the role during a global pandemic was the hardest part of the job, it’s getting thrown in at the deep end and having to swim for your life.  Luckily we have a really strong team here with huge amount of experience which has been invaluable and everyone has been so supportive.”

As part of International Women’s Day, Emma is encouraging other women to join the industry. Emma advises, “Providing you know your stuff and are willing to learn there are numerous opportunities. I have worked in several parts of the business from freight to projects and even took a couple of years away from Network Rail where I worked for a train operator in property and projects.  It has historically been a very male led industry but I’ve seen a real step change in my 11 years in rail which is refreshing, although I think it’s fair to say that there is still some way to go and I look forward to being part of that journey.”

International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Each year has a theme and the theme for 2021 is “choose to challenge” with the idea that from challenge, comes change.

In 2017 Network Rail announced its ‘20 by 20’ target, to increase our take-up of female employees across the business to 20 per cent by 2020. The Strategic Business Plan for Control Period 6 (2019-2024) sets out our plan to increase the number of women in our business by 50 per cent by the end of the Control Period and to have gender balanced recruitment of apprentices and graduates. More information about diversity and inclusion at Network Rail can be found here: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/diversity-and-inclusion/

For more information about International Women’s Day go to www.internationalwomensday.com

Notes to Editors

About International Women's Day

International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or rally for women's equality. 

Marked annually on March 8th, International Women's Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to:

• celebrate women's achievements
• raise awareness about women's equality
• lobby for accelerated gender parity
• fundraise for female-focused charities

Theme 2021

A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions - all day, every day.

We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.

From challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge.