World War I

The role played by women working on the railways during World War I was vital to the war effort, transporting troops, horses, military equipment, and medical supplies to ports around the country. Women stepped up to fill the shortage that emerged when 100,000 railway workers left to fight in the war.

Before the war, roughly 13,000 women worked on the railroad, mainly in domestic positions where they cleaned and washed. By the end of the war, this number had increased fivefold to some 70, 000 women. In 1915, it was decided that at the end of the war, these women would be retained in the service except to the limited extent that it would be warranted to discharge some of them to allow the reinstatement of former employees who enlisted in the army or navy.

In general, during WW1, over 1.6 million women worked in traditionally male jobs, with over 100,000 of them working in different forms of transport, especially as engineers.

Photo of female conductor during World War I, London, 1916.

Sources:

https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/.../first-world-war-women...