First female driver honoured with plaque

[Dstock7080]

First female driver honoured with plaque

Plaque Unveiled For The Tube's First Female Driver, Hannah Dadds

The London Underground of the 70s was a man's world, with so few female staff there were no ladies' toilets.

But one woman was to change that. In 1978 former ticket collector Hannah Dadds, who was from Forest Gate, completed a seven week training course, and qualified as driver on the District Line. In doing so she became the first ever female driver on the Underground network.

Hannah retired in 1993 and moved to Spain. She died of cancer in 2011, surrounded by her family.

Now a plaque has been unveiled in her memory at Upton Park.

I was lucky enough to work alongside both Hannah and Edna.
Both had very strong east-end accents which could shatter glass at 2miles and in arguments answer back with many expletives!

[superteacher]

Video clip of Hannah below getting into an R stock train. Few people nowadays realise the significance at the time of breaking into what was then an exclusively male profession, and there was a lot of opposition to it by those who saw it as a threat. Thank heavens we've moved on significantly from those days.

The irony in the video is the quote " . . . the first female motorman . . ."

[class411]

I remember the event making the evening news that day (assuming she took a train into service that day - I noticed a 'special' board on the train they showed in the clip).

Of course they had to show a couple of (male, of course) morons who decided to wait for the next train when they saw the driver was female (pretty sure it was a set-up).

I wonder if they realised what Richard Heads they looked.

[brigham]

Dog racing was a mainly-male occupation, too.
Easington Greyhound Stadium had no separate toilets for years. A fellow would stand outside while you went in, if you happened to be female.

[norbitonflyer]

Curiously, the commentary on the clip names her as Anne Dadds (not Hannah). And lots of intercutting between R-stock and A-stock.

[goldenarrow]

Past through Upton Pk today and I think it’s wonderful to finally see a proper tribute to her.

Interesting play on words though, I’d been led to believe that Hannah took a voluntary severance back in 93.

[beingcharley]

Jun 1, 2019 6:37:08 GMT superteacher said:

Video clip of Hannah below getting into an R stock train. Few people nowadays realise the significance at the time of breaking into what was then an exclusively male profession, and there was a lot of opposition to it by those who saw it as a threat. Thank heavens we've moved on significantly from those days.

The irony in the video is the quote " . . . the first female motorman . . ."

Things haven't moved on as much as people would like to believe. The recent ~hoo ha around gender neutral language, for instance, shows how much there still is to be done. Likewise, the disparity in the number of women versus men employed, and a lot of other seemingly-obvious aspects are still very stuck in the old ways of doing things. Indeed...

Jun 1, 2019 7:29:14 GMT class411 said:

Of course they had to show a couple of (male, of course) morons who decided to wait for the next train when they saw the driver was female (pretty sure it was a set-up).

I wouldn't be so sure on this being a set-up. This still happens today, yesterday, tomorrow: every single day. I have many female-identifying friends who are train operators, and they all have numerous experiences of people waiting for the next train purely because they're a women. Many even choose to walk up to cab doors and attempt to explain as such, although one particularly memorable story relayed to me was the time when the following five trains were all also being driven by lady drivers.

If only they knew of female control staff...

[class411]

Jun 1, 2019 11:37:53 GMT beingcharley said:

I wouldn't be so sure on this being a set-up. This still happens today, yesterday, tomorrow: every single day. I have many female-identifying friends who are train operators, and they all have numerous experiences of people waiting for the next train purely because they're a women. Many even choose to walk up to cab doors and attempt to explain as such, although one particularly memorable story relayed to me was the time when the following five trains were all also being driven by lady drivers.

If only they knew of female control staff...

I wonder what they do when they're strapped into their aircraft seat and the announcement comes:

"Hello, I'm Felicity Kemp and I'll be your captain for today. Our first officer is Alison Cooper, and she'll be flying this segment, our cabin crew ..."

<Snigger>

[holborncentral]

Jun 1, 2019 13:19:41 GMT class411 said:

Jun 1, 2019 11:37:53 GMT beingcharley said:

I wouldn't be so sure on this being a set-up. This still happens today, yesterday, tomorrow: every single day. I have many female-identifying friends who are train operators, and they all have numerous experiences of people waiting for the next train purely because they're a women. Many even choose to walk up to cab doors and attempt to explain as such, although one particularly memorable story relayed to me was the time when the following five trains were all also being driven by lady drivers.

If only they knew of female control staff...

I wonder what they do when they're strapped into their aircraft seat and the announcement comes:

"Hello, I'm Felicity Kemp and I'll be your captain for today. Our first officer is Alison Cooper, and she'll be flying this segment, our cabin crew ..."

<Snigger>

I was flying home from London a while back and the plane was being flown by a female pilot. As far as I remember nobody got off the plane when they heard the announcement   a couple of people might have even cheered, but I can't remember as I fell asleep soon after. 

[londonstuff]

Jun 1, 2019 13:19:41 GMT class411 said:

Jun 1, 2019 11:37:53 GMT beingcharley said:

I wouldn't be so sure on this being a set-up. This still happens today, yesterday, tomorrow: every single day. I have many female-identifying friends who are train operators, and they all have numerous experiences of people waiting for the next train purely because they're a women. Many even choose to walk up to cab doors and attempt to explain as such, although one particularly memorable story relayed to me was the time when the following five trains were all also being driven by lady drivers.

If only they knew of female control staff...

I wonder what they do when they're strapped into their aircraft seat and the announcement comes:

"Hello, I'm Felicity Kemp and I'll be your captain for today. Our first officer is Alison Cooper, and she'll be flying this segment, our cabin crew ..."

<Snigger>

We're starting to make some progress but it seems that in today's society, it's two steps forward, one step back. The story from March 2019 about an entirely female crew flying from Brussels to Doha certainly made me think things are creeping along though, albeit far too slowly. There are still virtually no female conductors in the classical music world even though when orchestras used to be entirely male (and still are in places like the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Google it) and apparently were just plain boorish.

I was at the AELTC having a behind the scenes tour of Wimbledon the other day and there was a huge poster showing the winners from 2018. Sure enough the male singles winner was in the top-left with it going down and down in hierarchy to the disabled women's winner in the bottom-right. It rankled with me at the time and still does now - I can't help but feel that if that'd been me, I'd have done it completely randomly to show how diverse the Championships are and to celebrate that a little bit.

[superteacher]

Jun 10, 2019 21:31:48 GMT londonstuff said:

Jun 1, 2019 13:19:41 GMT class411 said:

I wonder what they do when they're strapped into their aircraft seat and the announcement comes:

"Hello, I'm Felicity Kemp and I'll be your captain for today. Our first officer is Alison Cooper, and she'll be flying this segment, our cabin crew ..."

<Snigger>

We're starting to make some progress but it seems that in today's society, it's two steps forward, one step back. The story from March 2019 about an entirely female crew flying from Brussels to Doha certainly made me think things are creeping along though, albeit far too slowly. There are still virtually no female conductors in the classical music world even though when orchestras used to be entirely male (and still are in places like the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Google it) and apparently were just plain boorish.

I was at the AELTC having a behind the scenes tour of Wimbledon the other day and there was a huge poster showing the winners from 2018. Sure enough the male singles winner was in the top-left with it going down and down in hierarchy to the disabled women's winner in the bottom-right. It rankled with me at the time and still does now - I can't help but feel that if that'd been me, I'd have done it completely randomly to show how diverse the Championships are and to celebrate that a little bit.

Perhaps the reason (and I’m in no way advocating it) is that it’s the mens’ singles which sell the most. And as it’s a business, they focus on that to keep their revenue as high as possible.
The cycle must be broken somewhere, but money still talks.