In honour of International Women’s Day on Saturday March 8, Metro Trains and Yarra Trams have joined together to celebrate the women moving Melbourne.
As Chief Operating Officers of Metro and Yarra Trams respectively, Aline Frantzen and Liz Reddy are passionate about creating a workforce that reflects the community it serves.
Frantzen said that when she started in transport, only nine per cent of employees were women. Now, 33 per cent of Metro employees are female, and 39 per cent within the operating team.
“At Metro we strive to achieve equal opportunities and outcomes for our women and men, to empower individuals and ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive,” she said.
“I am very proud of the progress we have delivered in such a short period of time.
“The common thread across my roles has been collaborative working partnerships, and that’s something I push hard to happen here at Metro.”
Currently, around 28 per cent of people working at Yarra Trams are women. The Senior Leadership Team at Yarra Trams has a 50/50 gender split, the board has equal gender representation and is also chaired by a woman.
Targets aim to increase the representation of women across all roles at Yarra Trams to 47.5 per cent by the end of 2033. Work is underway to deliver a range of initiatives to help increase the representation of women working at Yarra Trams and improve gender equality.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is “March Forward”, and Reddy said this encourages Yarra Trams to look to the future.
“We’ve got ambitious targets to improve gender equality, and we know a more equal workplace will play a part in delivering better services for everyone using our network,” she said.
“I’m incredibly proud to lead a high performing team who work hard to deliver more than 5,000 tram services every day across the world’s biggest tram network.”
