Some fascinating opinions on this thread, which appear to fly in the face of almost all available evidence, not to mention common sense.
Before going on, I'm a white male. I'm relentlessly middle-class and have spent the last week giving more thought to what type of liner to get for my (ridiculously large) pond than anything else. I will shortly be starting driver training having applied barely 8 months ago. For what it's worth, I'm also former police officer - another profession with a history of difficulties in attracting non-white, male applicants.
To summarise:
"Only the best people should get the job".
Obviously.
ASLEF's proposals are to ensure that under-represented groups are AWARE OF THE OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY THE RAILWAY. As a previous poster has pointed out, most other industries have been doing this since the turn of the century; the police have achieved wonderful things in diversifying their workforce, not by giving the ladies a gentle pat on the bum and an assessment process that starts and finishes with "she's got a nice smile, give her a job" but by demonstrating that it is a viable career choice and worth their while in pursuing.
The evidence demonstrates that groups are under-represented in workplaces primarily because those groups don't apply in the first place. It is nowadays extremely rare for employers to get away with blatant direct discrimination, if only because their legal departments stamp out anything that crosses the line. As long as everybody is required to take the same assessments, I am incredibly relaxed about employers targeting recruitment adverts at women, BME, etc... After all, anyone serious about applying for a role on the railway will be checking recruitment pages religiously, so it shouldn't matter where adverts are targeted, eh?
It strikes me that there are a large number of people who are frankly terrified that some Doris will apply for a role that they think is theirs By Right, and, God forbid, actually get it on merit.
"Women go and get pregnant, are flighty, girly, cry at rude jokes etc... etc..."
A man is usually involved in some capacity in causing a woman to fall pregnant.
I certainly expect my wife's employer to bend over backwards to accommodate her if/when she gets pregnant, and as part of the social contract that our society has laboured under, certainly since the last War,we all should expect to be flexible when female colleagues need time off to have their own children.
As for women not being able to cope with rough and tumble life on the railway...I mean, Jesus Christ. Some of the most stoical, resilient and darkly funny people I have worked with have been women. I'm sure the darlings can cope without some Steely God of the Footplate to protect them from it all - by denying them a job in the first place, just to make sure there's no chance of them hearing something horrid).
I am aware of a number of female drivers at my own TOC not having worked for sometime. I am aware of considerably more males in the same position. I can't see it having anything to do with gender, and everything to do with basic capability and attitude.
"I don't agree with calling people 'women' or 'BME', why can't we all just be people? YOU'RE ACTUALLY THE RACIST/SEXIST."
I mean, this is something said by people who are either completely unaware of their relative privileges, or who are actively trying to maintain them.
In an ideal world, we wouldn't need to refer to different groups of people according to their race, religion, gender, etc... Unfortunately, as the world isn't actually perfect, we need to refer to different groups of people in certain circumstances - such as when they are demonstrably under-represented in certain fields or are subject to, for example, hate crime. When David Copeland blew up the Admiral Duncan 20 years ago, he wasn't just targeting a random group of people. He was targeting a specific, minority group.
If only 6% of drivers being female doesn't strike anyone as a bit, I don't know, odd. Then I don't think any sort of reasoning is going to help.
I've seen the list of names of my driver intake. It is, I think, entirely white and male. If there is a conspiracy to get more women and BME people to at least apply, then bring it on. It will do wonders to open up a new pool of talent.
. The other major turn off was the requirement at many TOCs to have experience as a guard for many years before being considered for driving.
