![\"History](\"https:\/\/addtransit.com\/images\/blog\/Inspirational-Women-in-Transit.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTransportation has always been a male-dominated field, with women often discouraged or outright banned from participating in the industry.\u00a0 However, many woman have overcome these challenges, proven their ability to do the job, and lobbied to get all-male unions and associations to change their rules.<\/p>\n
In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting just a few of the\u00a0 many women who have been involved in the transit industry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anne Bush was the first woman in the United States to receive a driver’s license, which at that time was called a “steam engineer’s license,” in the year 1900.<\/p>\n
Alice Huyler Ramsey was the first woman to drive from one coast of the United States to the other.\u00a0 She took three other women with her, and they traveled with no maps and often on dirt roads .\u00a0 She said,\u201cif we got lost, we\u2019d take to the high ground and search the horizon for the nearest telephone poles with the most wires. It was a sure way of locating the transcontinental railroad which we knew would lead us back to civilization.\u201d\u00a0 She later began racing cars against men and frequently won.<\/p>\n
In 1922, Helen Shultz started the Red Ball Transportation Company.\u00a0 She dealt with heavy rains destroying the roads her buses traveled on and various financial struggles, but she capitalized on the newspapers calling her the “Iowa Bus Queen.”\u00a0 She eventually sold the business for $200,000.<\/p>\n
Mary Walton received a patent in 1879 for a device that filtered smokestack emissions through water to clean the air of pollutants.\u00a0 The device was used on trains in New York City.\u00a0 Mary then received a patent for a sound dampening system that she sold to the Metropolitan Railroad of New York City.<\/p>\n
Olive Dennis was the second woman to graduate college with a civil engineering degree, and she became the engineer of service for the B&O railroad.\u00a0 She received a patent for her invention of the Dennis ventilator, and she contributed to the invention and design of air-conditioned coaches, dimmers on overhead lights, individual reclining seats, and stain-resistant upholstery.\u00a0 She was also the first woman to be a member of the American Railway Engineering Association.<\/p>\n
For more reading on these women, see Women in Transportation: Changing America’s History<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kathleen Andrews was a bus driver and transport Manager.\u00a0 She was the first woman to become a Transit Operator, Dispatcher and Manager in Alberta, Canada.<\/p>\n Read more about Kathleen Andrews here.<\/a><\/p>\n Joyce Barry was the first woman to become a tram driver in Australia.\u00a0 She started as a conductor during WWII, and when all of the other female conductors were fired after the war was over, she was rehired.<\/p>\n The tramway union objected to women becoming drivers because of the strength it took to use the manual handbrake and the ability it took to climb onto the roof and retrieve the trolley-pole if the trolley-rope broke.\u00a0\u00a0 Having experience felling trees, driving tractors and milking cows, Joyce thought these objections were “\u2018complete balderdash.”\u00a0 The union went so far as to go on strike to protest the training of Joyce and another woman, Catherine Stone.<\/p>\n In 1975, nearly 20 years after the union passed a resolution to forbid female drivers, the resolution was rescinded, and Joyce became Australia’s first female tram driver.\u00a0\u00a0 She worked as a driver for the next seven years.<\/p>\nKathleen Andrews<\/strong><\/h6>\n
Joyce Barry<\/strong><\/h6>\n