As a conductor I worked with female fireman and engineers. I would occasionally here a negative comment from older passengers but it was rare. More often, I would hear parents / grandparents mentioning it to their daughters / granddaughters in a very positive voice.

Having a diverse group of employees and volunteers helps inspire the future generation!

For years, we had a female locomotive engineer on our excursion train. Many of the young girls would ohh and ahh when they saw her arrive with the train, and then they would climb into the cab for a tour. I remember one young girl who loudly stated that she wanted to be a locomotive engineer. Here daddy told here that it was hard work and dirty and that she didn't really want to do that. I then explained to him and the young girl that the local railroad was hiring and what the pay was. Her daddy turned to the girl and told here that being a locomotive engineer was okay with him. It is all in educating the public.

Bart

About a decade ago the R&LHS made a big deal about the Southwest Chapter having a female chapter leader. It was stated that it was the first chapter to have a female leader. There was only one problem with that statement. It was the chapters second female to be elected leader of that chapter. The first was in 1985.
While I worked at Grand Canyon Railway, we trained a lady to fire and eventually become an engineer on both diesel and steam. One day she was bragging about being the first female engineer. I was glad when a long-time employee in his seventies informed her that she was not the first. That Marty Fisher was and further more she had established a reputation that was hard for anyone to meet no matter the sex. Latter we were training a second female to fire and a couple of female passengers wanted a picture of the two female crew members and then the male crew members. Fine what ever. Well they took the picture of the female and then “ran out of film after the male posed”. Bad behavior is not just a male ability.
When I worked at the Nevada Northern. The Late Jack Anderson, Mr. Bassett and I had discussed encouraging the return of a great and talented human being. With the help of another volunteer and friend we made contact and discussed her participation. In the mean time Mr. Butler had informed me of the C&TS purchasing coal from the King coal mine and I had passed that info along. The coal was of better quality than the coal the railroad was previously getting. She stated she wanted to fire to get first hand experience with the coal. So, I scheduled her to work as a fireman with another volunteer.
At the end of the shift I had a volunteer in my office very concerned about the job assignments. I was informed by the volunteer that the lady had seniority over him and she was to be given the engineer’s position when they worked together. I graciously thanked him for his concern but I told him there was something he needed to know. I had asked her what she wanted to do and she said firing and then wrote a schedule around her request. He accepted the explanation but I appreciated his willing to be a voice for her.

Robby Peartree

Every organization should have enforceable policies, guidelines and protocols to deal with sexism, racism, and other unbecoming behavior.

The actionable items to address here are:

- Does your organization have an anti-discrimination policy?
- Does your organization have a code of conduct policy?
- Does your organization have a communications and social media policy?
- Does your organization have a committee or group comprised of directors and members to review complaints?

I am attaching the FWRHS Code of Conduct policy as a reference.

Comment removed; direct participation solicited via PM.

I know people of all sexes and races who aren't very fond of too many rules and regulations so that should be considered here as well.

Sometimes folks just have to work things out for themselves. A one-size-fits-all solution may not be the best as the issues that occasionally arise can be as diverse as the individuals involved.

Anyway, everyone's safety habits should be the number one priority on the job, always.

It's worth noting one notable fact: there aren't a lot of women in this forum. And this forum has definitely played host to sexist tendencies. I once caught a fellow member for using the word "ladies" as a derogatory word to suggest weakness.

Kelly, how do you deploy your Code of Conduct? Do you make volunteers sign some sort of agreement?

We cover the organization's overall policies in every annual training session and members must sign in to document they've attended in order to qualify as a volunteer. We don't make anyone sign an agreement but in the case of disciplinary procedures, we will require members to sign an acknowledgment/disciplinary action form.

I can think of maybe 3-4 such procedures in the last ten years.

Some policies – like those regarding the code of conduct and communications/social media – are revisited in depth each year to reinforce guidelines and make sure newer folks are kept up in the same fashion.

Every volunteer understands that they are a representative of the organization and that even behavior off-site or on social media reinforces a connection (whether positive or negative) to the general public, fellow members, and the industry at large. If there are issues or concerns, there's also a chain of command in place for addressing those and delegated person(s) who can speak on behalf of the organization.



This may not have been the author's attention, but respect is absolutely a one-size-fits-all solution.

More to the point, many funding organizations and grantors will want to know what anti-discriminatory or conduct policies you have in place.

The unfortunate aspect of all of this is that the membership of ANY organization is voluntarily self-selected. I can no more force a woman, Latino, Black, etc. to be interested in railroading as I can force you to become a beer geek, a Battlestar Galactica fan, or a quilter. And even after 50+ years of "women's lib" and "civil rights" (however we define the movements), women and minorities remain distinctly underrepresented not just in rail preservation, but in similar stereotypically "male" avocations--auto racing, ham radio, sci-fi, etc., and over-represented in such fields as fiber arts, crafting, childcare, etc.

In one group of which I am a member, we had the unfortunate occurrence of all three of our African-American members (that we knew of from personal interaction) die within a mere few months of one another. Two of them I had had the habit of driving home to rather bad neighborhoods when they showed up (via bus) to meetings/events, to save them an hour or more of waiting for unpredictable buses. And one was a drinking buddy in my craft beer circles.

Now, here's the real and sincere question of mine (and one of the ones I gave lifts to): Exactly what are "we" (as a club, a hobby, an avocation) supposed to do to attract and retain minorities and women, other than NOT "drive them away" with overt or covert racism/sexism? How do you get them in the door, on the train, or on the trolley in the first place? We seem to have enough trouble not driving away just any young enthusiasts, if accounts repeated here over the years are any indication!

There have been various attempts to study minority and gender participation in hobbies or "leisure activities" over the years; many suffer from small sampling sizes and narrow focus on specific hobbies. The issues tend to break down more along economic levels rather than racial--lower incomes trend towards less leisure time available, less access to get to diverse places (is your museum transit-accessible?), etc.

Of course, displays of women and minorities in their actual roles in the industries, and coherent interpretive explanations (Pullman porters were a way out of the ghettos for many but racism was all over the place as well; women responded to war-induced labor shortages then quickly lost their jobs when the men returned; etc.), are almost standard in any worthy transport museum that actually does interpretive displays, to the point where it's almost a cliche in some cases. And it's worth finding minority docents or volunteers to help tell their experiences, even if they might be tainted by resentment, activism, or other agendas.

For me, it's a "see the forest for the trees" situation.

There are plenty of people who are not train-folk that may be engaged and interested in the social, cultural, or community offerings of the organization or operation. The broader the programs, events, opportunities, the larger pool of people it may appeal to.

Of course, one has to have rewarding opportunities for engagement and recruitment to start with. It has to be cultivated over time.

Plenty of people come and go for the trains, but plenty more stay for the feeling of belonging or kinship regardless of the caboose, engine, etc. in question. It's the feeling of connection and shared experiences that attract and retain talent.

KL

Having a face that looks like theirs in promotional materials works pretty well. I forget how important that can be, but a young acquaintance was utterly thrilled this week to see somebody that looked a whole lot like her getting sworn in. If you happen to have pictures or video of a wide range of volunteers and guests having fun, you may get a wider guest pool.

Knowing where people in your community go for information helps too, even though social media is a rapidly moving target. If mass-audience print media is going the way of the dodo, so are the long lead times we used to need to get articles and ads in. Finding the right group on the right platform is key. If you can invite a few local celebrities in the groups you’d like to attract, and they like your style, they may use their following to give you a boost.

I'd think in this day of PC-isms being pushed, to the point of sometimes feeling like it's being forced, groups would love the idea of having a (competent) female on the crew.
The RR I crew for, we had a female engineer for a while, who runs locomotives at TVRM when last I heard.
Before the state shut us down for the pandemic last year, I remember one day an African-American woman was asking around to volunteer. Everyone I saw talking to her (and myself) were strongly supportive of her coming on. I hadn't heard anything about her since then and we haven't had any way to train new people yet, but I hope we see her once we can do so.