Analyzing Status of Female workforce in the Railway Industry: A Case Study

Analysis of the working situation for women in the railway industry needs in-depth study of the viewpoints expressed by both men and women which is understudied in the literature especially in developing countries. Employment of women in the railway industry of Iran has nearly doubled since 2006 and it provided an interesting case study for this aim. The authors developed a questionnaire to explore various aspects of employment including general features like salary and prestige as well as evaluating different perspectives for women employment. Data was derived from 289 filled out questionnaires which were distributed in a public and a private railway company. We conducted independent sample T-tests to see whether there is statistically significant difference in the judgements of men and women for each item as well as the impact of place of employment, age, marital status and studying railway engineering. The obtained results could help the policymakers to improve further the working situation of women in this industry which is claimed to be heavily masculine.