This Wednesday, March 8 marks International Women’s Day. The opportunity for a portrait. That of Yvette, the first train driver recruited by the SNCB. 25 years ago thanks to the adoption of a law authorizing night work for women. Since then, mentalities have evolved and the public company hopes to increase the percentage of women in functions traditionally reserved for men.
For Yvette, mechanical parts are a passion that goes back to childhood. His dad then runs a car garage. The young girl does not hesitate to plunge her hands into the oil.
“My dad fixed the cars. We did the interviews and I helped him. I touched the keys and I liked it,” says the technician at the central workshop in Salzinnes (SNCB).
Yvette now works in the studio. But 25 years ago, she was the first Belgian woman to board a train… as a driver. “For me, driving is going for a walk. I have fun when I drive. A heavier train is more difficult to handle and to brake”she confided.
A female train conductor. An event at the time, because until 1997, the job was reserved for men, the only ones who might work at night.
“There were photographers on the embankments. Amateurs who collect photos of locomotives were there to photograph me. A photo with the first woman at the wheel”says Yvette.
Since then mentalities seem to have evolved. Responsible for supplying the technicians with mechanical parts, Yvette feels rather well integrated.
“Their fear was to know if it was going to work, a man’s job with a woman in charge. Seeing that it worked, mentalities changed a lot”, she says.
SNCB currently has 183 train drivers (6% of staff assigned to this function) and 53 technicians (1.6% of workshop staff). In the future, the broadening of the selection criteria should make it possible to increase this proportion.