Can a woman be a train driver? Why are women not allowed to drive trains? The thorny path to the rails

While Europe is on the path of universal unification and instead of the usual addresses Mr and Ms introduces asexual Mx, our country continues to defend the inequality of people of different sexes. At least in the professional realm.

For example, in our country, just like in some Saudi Arabia, the representatives of the weaker sex are forbidden to work in 456 specialties, although neither in the USA, nor in the European Union, nor in others developed countries There are no such restrictions for a long time.
A similar practice is also used in Belarus, only there the list is a little shorter, and consists of 200-odd professions. However, the most common ones like a fireman, a carpenter and a distillery worker are included in it.
And it is also forbidden to involve Belarusian women in work at a height of more than 1.3 meters (that is, for example, in picking apples and pears). Interesting, but own country cottage area does it count too?
Most of the controversy is caused not so much by professions with harmful and dangerous working conditions or those associated with lifting extreme weights - modern ladies are not eager to work as riggers or mercury dispensers - but those that are considered conditionally harmful now, although a few years ago they were happy to attract representatives of the weaker sex.
Subway driver
It is believed that women cannot work as typists because of excessive health burdens. Flashes of bright light, alternating with the darkness of the tunnel, quickly spoil the vision, and the need to keep the situation under complete control for several hours is nerves.
Now this profession, according to Russian laws, is included in the list of hard work and work with harmful or dangerous working conditions, but women were not always closed to the subway. After the war, entire female brigades of typists and their assistants were formed in Moscow, because there were sorely lacking men. By the way, this problem may arise again soon. Engineers must have excellent health, and modern young people cannot boast of it.
While the subway is pushing back the age limit for candidates for machinists, it is quite possible that gender inequality in this profession will have to be abolished. The same restriction as in the subway also applies to high-speed train drivers on the railway. So far, only men can be them, but a couple of months ago, Russian Railways already promised to reconsider this decision.
Truck driver
Why this profession is considered non-female in Russia is not entirely clear. In other countries, women make up a small but significant percentage of truck drivers. In the US, for example, 5% of large cars are driven by women, in Canada the figure is 3.5%, and even in conservative Europe, 1% of heavy trucks are in the hands of women.
The same applies to the ban on driving buses with 14 or more passenger seats. Is it possible that the ladies can handle the Gazelle, but not some Toyota for 15-16 seats? Moreover, among trolley bus drivers, for example, there are already a lot of women, and this work is no easier than long-distance transportation.
Fireman
Although there are no official restrictions on this position in most countries, unlike in Russia, women in the fire department are still a rarity. In the US, for example, they make up only 0.6 percent of the total number of firefighters. And in Sweden, even a special survey was conducted several years ago, and it turned out that male firefighters would not want ladies to enter their profession, because they consider their team to be a brotherhood, which gives them the opportunity to act correctly in extreme situations, to understand each other with one look.
Nevertheless, there are still women in the Swedish fire departments, though a little more than a hundred throughout the country. Perhaps the only exception to the rule is Australia, where women volunteers are actively recruited to extinguish forest fires.
leather worker
While a man goes missing hunting, women make clothes out of skins, right? Such a picture can now only be seen in history textbooks. In Russia, women are prohibited from sorting large leather raw materials, cutting leather, and even cleaning leather products.
True, there is an explanation here, and a very reasonable one: such raw materials usually weigh quite a lot, and after the skin has been chemically treated and cut, no one forbids sewing handbags and shoes for women.
Unfortunately, such restrictions affect the legalization of folk crafts, since in many nationalities it is women who are traditionally engaged in leather dressing and even skinning, which is also prohibited for ladies under the Labor Code.
Servicing bulls and driving tractors
It would seem, where, if not in the sphere Agriculture Are women really in demand? However, it is here, perhaps, that the most gender restrictions exist. For example, ladies are strictly forbidden to work with sires, sires and boars, although in many domestic and small farms they do this work informally.
The logic of the legislators is clear: such a profession is fraught with injuries and requires great physical strength to restrain and calm an angry animal, if necessary.
And if everything is clear with dangerous animals, then there is no clear answer to the question why women cannot work as tractor drivers or machinists. This ban is especially surprising for elderly representatives of these professions, who calmly worked in Soviet time. Recall at least a participant in the Stakhanovist movement Praskovya Angelina, or the famous tractor driver Olga Kovaleva.
In fact, a woman in Russia can drive agricultural machinery, but only on the condition that her safety is ensured to the maximum. Modern combines, equipped with the latest technology, fall under this definition.
In a number of regions, even schoolgirls are taught how to operate such machines so that, as soon as they reach the age of 18, they can immediately enter the field. However, farms that can afford new (and rather expensive) equipment are still vanishingly few.
It is noteworthy that the fair sex, who want to drive agricultural machinery, in last years is becoming more and more, so it is quite possible that this profession will soon be crossed off the list forever.

The Ministry of Labor will revise the list of professions allowed only for men

The Department of Labor will re-examine whether women can work as skippers and subway drivers. The current list of prohibited professions for women, adopted in 1974 and confirmed in 2000, will be revised

At the processing plant at the mine (Photo: Anatoly Strunin/TASS)

Seamen's message

Ministry of Labor and social protection will update the list of 456 jobs where female labor is prohibited. “The Ministry of Labor is working to update the list, including with a view to reducing the number of professions in which the use of women’s labor is limited,” reads a letter signed by Tatyana Zhigastova, deputy director of the department of conditions and labor protection. A copy of the document is at the disposal of RBC. The need to reduce the list in the department is explained by a change in production technologies and “social and hygienic working conditions” in many areas.

The letter is addressed to the head of the Russian Trade Union of Sailors Yuri Sukhorukov. The organization had previously complained to the government that women could not be crew members on ships. “We had a congress in November, where this issue was considered. We sent a resolution to the prime minister, the prime minister forwarded it to the Ministry of Labor, ”Igor Kovalchuk, the first deputy chairman of the trade union, told RBC.

As follows from the resolution, the girls complained to the trade union, who were trained in nautical schools and river technical schools, but could not get a job. The activists demanded the elimination of discrimination and the obligation of employers to create safe working conditions for workers of any gender.

The department “agreed to revise this list so far in terms of which professions from the list are outdated, which have disappeared, in which working conditions have changed,” says Kovalchuk. “Conceptually, the ministry is not yet ready to consider the question of whether a woman herself can decide whether she should work in a mine,” he said.

Now the Ministry of Labor is collecting proposals from trade unions and experts, and, together with doctors, “is working to determine the factors that affect a woman’s reproductive health,” the ministry’s press service confirmed to RBC.

UN decision

The UN in March 2016 considered the existence of 456 jobs banned by the government for women as discrimination. This was stated in the decision on the complaint of Russian woman Svetlana Medvedeva, published on the website of the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Medvedeva graduated from the Samara River College in 2005, where she studied driving water transport. When she tried to get a job at the Samara River Passenger Enterprise, she was refused, citing a government list.

Medvedeva applied for the position of minder-helmsman. Sanitary norms and rules classify this work as harmful, due to the fact that "noise parameters exceed the permissible level." However, the legislation does not say what the danger of noise is for women's health, Medvedeva pointed out. She went through three judicial instances, at all levels her complaints were rejected.

The UN Committee agreed that the complainant had been discriminated against. He also pointed out that the harm to women from working on a ship is not scientifically proven, and the ban on hard work for women "reflects persistent stereotypes regarding the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the family and in society."

Medvedev was never reinstated, her lawyer Dmitry Bartenev told RBC. According to him, the courts do not take the decision of the UN committee into account, referring to the fact that it is not binding on Russia. The Ministry of Labor explained to RBC that they do not agree with the conclusions of the committee, since according to international law, "the adoption of special measures aimed at protecting motherhood is not considered discriminatory."

In 2012, the Constitutional Court refused to consider the complaint of Anna Klevets, a resident of St. Petersburg, who was seeking the right to work as a metro driver. “The implementation of the principle of legal equality cannot be carried out without taking into account the generally recognized social role of women in procreation,” the decision said.

The position of human rights defenders

The ban on hiring women for 456 jobs has previously been criticized by human rights activists. As the anti-discrimination center “Memorial” pointed out in its report, the list includes a number of “interesting and prestigious professions”: for example, women cannot be subway drivers, divers, firefighters, assemblers of communication towers, or engage in geological exploration. In this case, often the harm from a particular work is not obvious. There are professions that objectively harm the health of any person (in particular, work on nuclear submarines), but they are allowed for men.

The list of prohibited jobs for women has not changed since 1974, and no one has conducted scientific studies confirming their harmful effects on the female body, the Consortium of Women's Non-Governmental Organizations pointed out in its report. In particular, that women are prohibited from working, which provides for lifting weights of more than 10 kg up to two times per hour. At the same time, “10 kg is the average weight of a one-year-old child, whose lifting and moving by the mother is in no way limited by the state,” the consortium’s report said.

The admission of women to work that is considered difficult could increase employment and make it possible to earn on an equal footing with men, lawyer Bartenev is sure: “Restrictions should be rare and relate to exceptional situations when the use of female labor can be associated with a serious health risk. But the priority should still be the right of a woman to decide whether she agrees to these risks or not.

There are many women among the metro employees: they are on duty in the booths at the escalator, they sell tokens, they clean the floors at the stations, but they cannot become highly paid machinists. The Village asked the press secretary of the St. Petersburg metro and the girl who, through the court, tried to obtain the right to work as a machinist, about the reasons for such discrimination.

Yulia Shavel

press secretary of the St. Petersburg metro

There is a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated February 25, 2000 No. 162 “On approval of the list of heavy work and work with harmful or dangerous working conditions, in the performance of which the use of women’s labor is prohibited.” Under number 374 in this resolution is "the driver of the electric train and his assistant." That is, the rule was not written by the metro: it was adopted at the federal level.

The only women's brigade of machinists in the Leningrad metro was formed in 1955. There were four drivers. One of those women, Natalya Donskaya, is alive. According to her, it was a very difficult job.

Working as a machinist, in addition to a huge physical load, also implies a psychological one. Let's take a modern rolling stock: in a critical situation, the driver must make the decision. There are severe cases: a person fell under the train - the driver informs the dispatcher and then he, on an emergency basis, begins to pull the person out from under the train. It is difficult to imagine that a woman - both physically and psychologically - could do such a job. Another point: a long stay underground negatively affects the physical condition of a woman, in particular her reproductive function.

for this job and not every man will be taken: the main requirement is
good health

Personally, I think the decision is fair. Every day I observe how difficult the work of the machinists is. Yes, there are strong women who operate cranes at construction sites and work behind the wheel of a taxi. Yes, trains are not prepared for departure by machinists, but by locksmiths and other attendants. But emergency situations in the subway are among the most difficult in the world. And the drivers are responsible for all the people - passengers - that are behind them: these are six to eight cars.

Not every man will be hired for this job: the main requirement here is good health. Unfortunately, today's youth have a lot of problems. So if a healthy 50-year-old man comes to us, we will take him. In the subway, there is a large turnover among machinists: it happens that men who have worked for 20 years have health problems - then they are transferred to another job, for example, locksmithing.

In recent years, none of the women, except for Anna Klevets from St. Petersburg, has applied to us for employment as a machinist. There are other vacancies for women in the subway.

ANNA KLEVETS

It was the end of 2008, I was then studying at the Faculty of Law. I needed Additional income. I could not get a job in my specialty, because work experience was required everywhere. And in the subway, an announcement was constantly sounding that assistant drivers were needed - men. I, having legal knowledge, understood that this was a discriminatory requirement, since according to the Constitution, men and women have equal rights in the field of choosing a profession. I decided to apply to the Metropolitan, and there I was refused a job: they verbally explained that they only hire men.

I decided to go to court because I understood: women are discriminated against on the basis of gender. As a result, she passed all the courts of the first, second instance - reached the Supreme Court. I had two cases in parallel: the first - on the refusal to hire, I went through the district court of St. Petersburg and reached the Supreme Court. Secondly, I appealed against the point of the government decree, according to which women are prohibited from working as an electric train driver. This application was immediately filed with the Supreme Court. Then there was an appeal to the Constitutional Court, to the European Court of Human Rights. The last appeal is to the UN Committee on the Protection of Women from Discrimination. So far there is no response from them. All other instances refused me and supported the government's decision. The European Court of Human Rights declared my complaint inadmissible - they wrote that there were no violations of the Convention on Human Rights.

There is many harmful
professions, in which
women work

In the case of Decree 162, the logic of the government is as follows: it is concern for women's reproductive health. Those harmful factors that exist in the subway can affect the health of a woman as a future mother. Factors are vibrations, noise, poor lighting and others.

There are many harmful professions in which women work. For example, painters who do not receive as high a salary as train drivers, but at the same time work in harmful conditions. There is an opportunity to get more, and this is a choice that a woman should have. If she herself decides that she does not want to work with such harmful factors, she will not go into this profession. There are women who have already given birth, women who do not plan to become mothers - they should get the right to be a machinist and receive a decent salary.

ILLUSTRATION: Nastya Yarovaya

Electric locomotive of desire

For the first time in Russia, a girl, Yulia Yurova from the Moscow region, became an assistant to the driver on the railway

Since Soviet times, the profession of an electric train driver was considered not a woman’s business: the fair sex could wash trains, oil their bearings and check the condition of the wheels, but the way to manage these vehicles was ordered for them. However, recently the first girl appeared in the Moscow region - 25-year-old Yulia Yurova from Korolev - who, despite all the bureaucratic obstacles, nevertheless managed to become an assistant driver and gain access to the coveted "steering wheel" of an electric train. The details of her amazing story were found out by the MK correspondent.

The thorny path to the rails

Until the 8th grade, the life of Yulia Yurova was no different from other schoolgirls: she was fond of humanitarian subjects and was thinking about a career as a journalist. One day, on her way from Korolev to Moscow, the girl got into a conversation with the driver of a commuter train. However, when Julia asked the railway worker where to go to study in order to become a "helmsman", he recommended that she leave these thoughts.

They say forbidden fruit is sweet. That's how Yulia got the idea to connect her life with the railways. Surprisingly, her mother, Lilia Adolfovna, did not argue with her daughter. After graduating from the 11th grade in 2005, the girl entered the first year of railway college No. 52. The representative of the weaker sex was not too happy at the selection committee: they immediately informed that, of course, she could receive a diploma as an assistant driver and even practice on real electric trains, but her “composition” would not move beyond this - it was forbidden to take women as drivers. However, the college management tried to console Yulia: “Our diploma will give you two professions at once - an assistant driver and a locksmith: you can always work on the second one.”

The prospect of becoming a mechanic, frankly, did not make Yulia very happy, but she still began to study at the railway college, despite the foggy future. In the spring of 2008, the girl practiced for a whole month as an assistant driver at the Moscow-2 depot, but after the end of the practice, the management of the institution offered her to do any work other than train control. Then Yulia tried to get a job at another depot - "Pererva", the head of which, Alexander Koryagin, was sympathetic to her desire after graduation to go to work in her specialty. It was thanks to the good attitude and the petition of the management of the depot that Yulia Yurova literally got a lucky ticket: permission to work as an assistant driver was given to her personally by the then head of the Moscow railway Vladimir Starostenko.

- The first weeks were difficult, - says Yulia, - I worked in men's team and felt how distrustfully all the drivers and their assistants looked at me. There were also everyday difficulties - the men had to clear the locker room for me, and they really did not know how to treat me - condescendingly, as a girl who will work for a week and leave, or as a colleague who can be relied upon. My job was to monitor the readings of the instruments on the train, control the boarding and disembarking of passengers and help the driver - for example, if he forgot to perform any operation, I had to immediately tell him about this mistake. When our train was at the depot, we, together with the driver, went around it, checking whether everything was in order with it. From the Kursk railway station went to Serpukhov, Chekhov, Podolsk, Shcherbinka, Golitsino and other cities. There, at the Pererva depot, I met my common-law husband, driver Alexei, with whom we are still together. So I worked for two years.

Then the girl had to change jobs - now she drew schedules for train departures without any chance of returning "at the helm". But when a company dealing passenger traffic between the largest metropolitan railway stations and airports, announced a recruitment at the beginning of summer, Yulia Yurova, without hesitation, sent her resume. It was considered for a long time - about two months - but in August the girl was called back and invited for an interview. She successfully passed not only him, but also two strict commissions, one of which checked her physical, and the other - her psychological state. As a result, on August 22, Yulia became an assistant driver on a train running between the Belorussky railway station and Sheremetyevo airport.