“More Women* in the Rail Industry!” – Quantitative Analysis and Qualitative Exploration of Existing Barriers and Starting Points

The “Agenda Rail Industry Women” – an association of experts from the mobility sector – advocates for “more women* in the railway industry”. To support this goal, L&R Social Research in cooperation with Maria Kargl conducted a quantitative and explorative-qualitative study on the gender-specific representation in this industry sector.

By means of an online survey, an initial picture was drawn up of the proportion of women in the railway industry and the proportion of employees by gender at different levels, fields of activity, functions and positions. Figures are now available for almost 60,000 employees in the rail industry and rail operators.

The qualitative part of the study was based on in-depth exploration and focus groups with women working in the rail industry at different career levels and functions: Female apprentices, (young) female technicians, (HR) managers and heads of technical projects were included in a total of seven focus groups.

The aim was to support “More women* in the railway industry” with practice-relevant results from research. The results were presented and discussed under the title “13.7% women* in the railway industry – still many railway kilometres to equality” in a study presentation and panel discussion at the Federation of Austrian Industry on 27 April 2023.

Some findings: Bahnindustrie: 13,7% Vielfalt – ÖBB-Konzern (oebb.at)