Maria Isabel Bonilla Galindo (National Center for the Preservation of Railway Cultural Heritage).
Railroad Feminism in Ferronales: Biographies and Documentary Sources (1931–1943).

In 1931, Ferronales magazine announced the creation of a section dedicated to “the honorable and charming women” of Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM). Inspired by Margarita Talbott Stevens, editor of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Magazine, the publication called on staff to submit information for the new section , “Railroad Feminism.” Between 1931 and May 1937, 41 biographies were published, mostly of stenographers and nurses affiliated with the Alliance of Mexican Railroad Workers.
In 1933, the newly created Union of Railroad Workers of the Mexican Republic absorbed the former association and promoted the increase of women in the workforce. However, in 1943 the situation reversed: following the enactment of the Social Security Law, General Manager Margarito Ramírez announced that FNM would cease hiring female workers, with the exception of nurses and the daughters of deceased railroad workers.
This study examines the representation and career paths of female railway workers in the pages of the Ferronales magazine during the first half of the 20th century, and presents the documentary sources on this topic preserved at the Center for Railway Documentation and Research (CEDIF). A review of these materials—corporate publications, labor files, and photographic records—enables an examination of the relationship between gender, union organization, and labor policies in the Mexican railway sector. PDF

Elena Salerno(National University of Tres de Febrero).
Women Workers on the Argentine State Railways in the First Half of the 20th Century: A Case Study.

Until well into the 20th century, railway work was considered a male-dominated field, as evidenced by the visibility of personnel responsible for operating trains and all those involved in the construction and maintenance of rolling stock and railway infrastructure.  Both contemporary documentation and publications by companies and labor unions reflected the complete male dominance of the industry, and even historiographical approaches to this topic concurred with this assessment.
In recent years, studies have been published regarding the presence of women in the railway world as part of the community and families of railway workers, while others trace the presence of female workers—whether salaried or not—in the railway sector. In this paper, we aim to provide some evidence that reinforces these observations.  The available documentation allows us to observe the presence of female workers in the Argentine State Railways since the early 20th century, mostly as administrative staff in various roles both at the headquarters of the General Administration of the State Railways in Buenos Aires and in various offices throughout the network.  Through the analysis of these cases, we aim to contribute to our understanding of the roles women played and to the study of women’s labor in the railways.
For this study, we have drawn upon the National Parliamentary Archives, specifically the documentation compiled by the investigative committees established in the Chamber of Deputies and personnel files from the General Railway Archives. PDF

Solange Godoy (National University of San Martín / CONICET).
Argentine Railways and the Last Civil-Military Dictatorship. An Approach Focusing on Female Railway Workers and Their Families (Argentina, 1976–1983).

In Argentina, during the period of the last civil-military dictatorship (1976–1983), the state-owned company Ferrocarriles Argentinos underwent a downsizing process linked to policies of “drastic rationalization” that resulted in layoffs and service cuts. These measures coincided with a repressive climate of illegal detentions, murders, and forced disappearances of workers. This paper aims to examine this period through the lens of women railway workers, focusing on those who were detained and disappeared, as well as those who were laid off. It also includes cases of women—wives of disappeared railway workers—and other relatives who demanded rights they considered legitimate as part of the “railway family.” Within the framework of a broader line of research, the study seeks to understand the role of the state-owned company in the repressive processes and the responses of family members in the context of the struggle for Memory, Truth, and Justice. The methodology is based on qualitative fieldwork consisting of in-depth interviews and documentary analysis of various written sources (the company’s personnel files, documents from the archives of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, among others). PDF

Luisina Agostini (CONICET – ISHIR – UNR – Argentina).
Women Railway Workers in Rosario, Argentina (1970–1990).

Women’s work in the railway sector is a constantly evolving field of research in Argentina. Using a socio-historical approach with a gender perspective, we will analyze the case of female administrative staff in the city of Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina, who worked in the accounting offices of the Rosario Railway Workshops, part of the Mitre Railway. We will examine their career trajectories by periodizing their hiring starting in the 1970s and their layoffs in the 1990s, when these workplaces were closed as a result of the privatization of the national railway service.
Using a qualitative methodology based on interviews—which, once converted into historiographical sources, will be triangulated with written documents and specific bibliography—we argue that these women constitute a final generation of female railway workers with accumulated experience in administrative tasks. They acquired knowledge transmitted to them in the workplace and became part of the “railway family,” a unifying term for inherited traditions. However, the implementation of neoliberal policies aimed at labor rationalization disrupted the cycle of individual and collective learning within offices and workshops. Our historiographical proposal links gender and railway work, two perspectives necessary to provide a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of the railway labor world in Argentina during the final decades of the 20th century. PDF

Mª Concepción García González (Spanish Railways Foundation).
Renfe's Apprentice Schools: A Missed Opportunity for Gender Equality in the Railway Industry.

The adoption of the 1978 Constitution allowed Renfe’s first collective bargaining agreement, signed that same year, to stipulate that any job position could be filled by either male or female employees. Thus, although Renfe’s Apprentice Schools had begun operating in 1947, training qualified personnel for workshops and depots, it was not until then that women were able to enroll in them.
Encouraged by their families, who wanted the same for them as for their male peers—a secure job—and with the opportunity to learn a trade from an early age, many young women were inspired to apply for positions in trades they would never have considered had this new pathway into the public company RENFE not existed.
The specializations offered in 1978 were: Mechanics and Metal Construction, Electricity, and Electronics. As a result, the female students who completed their training in 1981—and many of those who did so in subsequent graduating classes until the schools closed—took on positions that had never before been held by women.
From the first intake in which they were admitted until what would be the last, in 1983, women, despite their small numbers, excelled in their grades, often winning the scholarships reserved for the top students.
The closure of the schools in 1986 meant that the door that had just opened for women’s access to traditionally male trades was shut again. Women had that opportunity in only the last six graduating classes, although their presence in the classrooms increased year after year.
The experience of these workers has shown that, with real opportunities, equality in the workplace is possible. The premature closure of the schools cut short a process that could have transformed the railway sector and contributed decisively to gender equality in Spain. PDF

Aitor Carrillo Pérez (Public University of Navarra).
The purge against female railway workers in Navarra.

During the Spanish Civil War and the immediate postwar period, between 1936 and 1942, the entire Spanish railway workforce was subjected to a massive purge as part of the rebel strategy to systematically eliminate all opposition to their coup d’état and the establishment of Franco’s “New State.” As part of this process, their professional work, political and union affiliations, as well as their behavior before, during, and after the war were investigated. Once the authorities and companies had assessed their profiles and attitudes, they could propose reinstatement, with or without sanctions, or opt for dismissal.
However, this line of research has only begun to see significant developments in recent years, mainly thanks to the gradual expansion of research at the provincial and/or regional level. However, the study of Franco’s railway purge, already underdeveloped in itself, lags even further behind when it comes to analyzing the specific experiences of women employed on the Spanish railways, where research has been negligible to date.
My proposal consists of three parts: first, a contextualization of women’s employment situation in the first third of the 20th century and of the railway purge; second, an analysis of the information compiled by the repressive agents who assessed these women, particularly regarding ideologies and political activism. Finally, I will use a specific case—that of a woman who was a victim both because of her own ideas and those of her husband—to explain in detail how this purge process operated across its various phases: assessment by repressive agents, filing of charges, exoneration, and sentencing by the labor court. PDF

Kate Reed (University of Chicago).
Women in the Mexican Railway Workforce.

Little is known about the hundreds of women employed by Mexican railroads throughout the 20th century. This presentation is an effort to characterize the female workforce of the railroads in the southeastern part of the country (the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán, the Ferrocarril del Sureste, and the Ferrocarriles Unidos del Sureste) based on the personnel files of approximately 150 women. Through these records, a sort of “collective biography” is pieced together that links their career paths and life cycles. At what stage of life were they hired? What family responsibilities did they have? How much did they earn? How stable were their jobs? What kind of work did they perform? Despite sharing the same gender and the fact that the vast majority were relatives of railway workers or employees, they constituted a heterogeneous workforce. The presentation therefore highlights the divisions and differences that ran through it. For some women, especially those with some training as nurses, stenotypists, teachers, etc., the railroad could be a source of stable work, even offering them the possibility of economic independence, social advancement for their children, and a decent retirement for themselves. For others, especially those who were already in vulnerable situations due to being illiterate, widowed, or elderly, the railroad provided unionized and relatively well-paid jobs—though precarious and without prospects for advancement—in which they continued to depend on family networks to survive. Furthermore, these were the positions most vulnerable to the processes of subcontracting and informalization undertaken in the 1970s. Thus, we see how significant inequalities were reproduced even within one of the country’s most privileged workforces. PDF

Belén Moreno Claverías (University of Oviedo), Miguel Muñoz Rubio (ASHIF), and Francisco Polo Muriel (Spanish Railways Foundation).
The Impact of the Spanish Civil War on Female Railway Workers (1936–1939).

The Civil War clearly disrupted the economic and social structure of the entire country. The three-year conflict transformed the daily lives and working conditions of workers. In the case of female railway workers, the war had a profound impact on a group that had achieved, during the Second Republic, one of the highest levels of representation—particularly in terms of quality—within railway companies.
The files generated by the purge process initiated during the war and continued through the first half of the 1940s have not only revealed the approximate number of female railway workers employed by the major companies, their full names, job categories, places of residence, and the sanctions imposed, but also the roles they had to play in their respective departments and the hardships many of them endured as a result of the conflict: forced displacement, exile, arrests, and imprisonment.
This paper aims to present an overview of the impact of the conflict on the group of female railway workers, illustrating it through specific cases we have been studying as part of the research project “The Repression of Female Railway Workers during the Civil War and the Franco Regime.” PDF