DUBLIN BUS WILL be launching a tailored recruitment campaign targeting women in the coming months, with figures showing just 3% of its drivers are women.

Only 80 of its more than 2,400 drivers are female and most of them were recruited a decade ago. In a statement to TheJournal.ie this week, it said it is aware that women are under-represented in the bus driving grade and has been working to address this.

It said it has incorporated images of female drivers in recruitment literature and attended fairs that targeted women. Interestingly, the company has also met with the Department of Social Protection about identifying suitable female candidates from the live register.

Ingrid Doyle, who has worked as a driver with Dublin Bus for the last 15 years, said she thinks there are a number of reasons why women have shied away from driving jobs with Dublin Bus.

“I think women wouldn’t come in maybe because of the size of the bus, they might be intimidated by it or think they can’t drive it,” she said. “I was asking the girl in the canteen earlier if she’d ever think of doing it and she said ‘not in a million years’, because the buses are so big.”

With the training she received, Doyle said driving the bus is actually the easy part and she has always enjoyed driving – that’s why she went for the job in the first place.

Dublin Bus Driver Angela Morris Source: Dublin Bus

Working mothers

“It’s shift work, though, and for women with children that’s really difficult, especially women with small kids,” Doyle explained.

You won’t be able to get them to and from school unless you have a partner who is there to do it. If you have a good external structure it’s fine.

“Another thing is the bad manners, there’s a lot of that around. Maybe women have seen stuff that has happened on buses and just think that’s not for them.”

Doyle said she has never been the victim of a violent attack on a bus but she has been spat at on two different occasions.

“That’s the worst thing, it’s actually worse than a punch I think.”

The abuse drivers receive is mostly verbal but she said that “goes over your head” after a while. If it ever becomes physical, Doyle said drivers know they can call control and the gardaí will be notified immediately.

Though she is one of the few female drivers on the team, Doyle said she has never experienced any sexism and gets on well with her male colleagues, many of whom were a great help to her when she first started.

“I’d actually be more likely to ring one of my male colleagues outside work for a chat because we’d see each other more on shifts. We have a bit of banter – and I’m well able for them – but there’s never been anything sinister at all. The lads are great and we have great craic.”

Stick it out

All of the female drivers she knows have worked in the company for years and she said she recalls one woman starting recently who only stuck it out for a week.

“The first few months are mental, learning the routes and all that. If you give it a chance, it does get better and easier and everyone is really helpful, even the managers.”

Driver Christina Paun. Source: Dublin Bus

She stressed that the company also offers opportunities for upward mobility, having just been promoted recently herself.

Though it can be a challenging job, Doyle said it can be really fun and the best part for her is the human interaction.

“You have your regulars on the route and I get a bar of chocolate sometimes from the older women. The people are what I like most about the job. You have people telling you their problems as well – even though they’re not supposed to talk to you while you’re driving – you’re like a priest, a nurse, a psychiatrist, like all of them rolled into one.”

Dublin Bus’s upcoming female-targeted campaign will include a depot open day for women where experienced drivers like Ingrid Doyle will be there to talk about their careers and opportunities for women.