Editor’s Notebook – Women in Rail Engineering ~ A Special Group
Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
Photo credit: Shutterstock/Dmytro Zinkevych
ATLANTA –– Railway Track and Structures has several annual features that honor different segments of rail engineering, and our work on these is among the most important we do –– Railway Track and Structures "Editor's Notebook," July 2026.
Some might wonder if these features become routine after a few years, but nothing is further from the truth.
Much of today’s work environment is filled with turmoil and uncertainty for a variety of reasons. I’m talking about our whole economy, not just the rail industry. Corporations seem to think little or nothing of laying off thousands of workers at one time, and employer loyalty has diminished significantly during the past few decades.
Those remaining after a corporate bloodletting are spread too thin, and the company loses critical resources who are integral to ensuring the company delivers its product or service with timeliness and high quality. Customer satifaction often experiences a nosedive.
The investment community seems disinterested in long-term growth and value, and companies often cater to the investor who is out to make a quick buck. “Shareholder value,” they call it. Rail executives know this is not in the best interest of the industry, but as one retired rail chief recently commented, “they want to keep their jobs.” What a mess.
Against this backdrop, we celebrate the expertise and accomplishment of railroad engineers. These folks begin their engineering journey by completing very rigorous university education programs, where there is extremely little room for poor performance. College graduates remember opportunities for “partial credit” when their exams were being graded. At engineering schools, there are very few instances where partial credit can be awarded. As one friend who graduated from a prestigious engineering school told me, “you won’t get partial credit if the bridge collapses.”
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers makes some interesting points on its website (https://www.asme.org): “Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) continues to be a widely discussed topic—and rightfully so. A gender disparity remains in STEM fields, with women making up 34 percent of the workforce. And the engineering gap is even more pronounced: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women made up roughly 16 percent of engineers and architects in 2023.
“Empowerment groups, like the Society of Women Engineers (https://swe.org/), advocate for encouraging women to pursue engineering degrees as a critical first step toward increasing their representation in the workforce. A further action item goes hand in hand: Research shows that ‘female students perform substantially better in their math and science courses when they are taught by women,’ and employing female faculty members could lead to an increased number of female graduates.” University leaders take note.
This challenging situation is a blight on society. It’s a big part of why RT&S is working to increase ties with and give a larger voice to the academic engineering community in our pages. Featuring outstanding women in our annual engineering recognition programs and features is critical to the industry’s future.
