A travel company with bus services in Oxfordshire marked International Women’s Day by celebrating women in transport.
Stagecoach is also looking to push on with several initiatives to foster diversity and inclusivity within its organisation.
International Women’s Day, a global event celebrated on March 8, honours the social, economic, cultural, and political feats of women while urging more efforts towards achieving equal opportunities for women.
Aligning with this year's theme, ‘Inspire Inclusion’, Stagecoach partnered with its in-house women’s network to create a video displaying women who have paved the way and have challenged stereotypes relating to women in the transport sector.
The video features women employed in different roles within the company, among them Stagecoach’s new CEO, Claire Miles.
It demonstrates the range of opportunities within the company from engineering to strategic planning.
Ms Miles said: "It was a delight to join a collection of fantastic women from across Stagecoach, demonstrating the variety of opportunities available in transport and in our business.
"Ensuring Stagecoach is an employer of choice by actively creating space for diversity and inclusion benefits not only Stagecoach but the wider transport sector.
"We actively promote diversity and inclusion in a variety of ways, from strategic objectives such as targeting 40 per cent female leaders and 25 per cent of employees from ethnic backgrounds by 2026, through to our employee led networks.
“Targets such as these help Stagecoach to continue on a positive journey to improve the diversity of the transport sector, but this can only be achieved if we champion women and inspire inclusion."
In the celebration of International Women’s Day, the firm also highlighted the triumphs of women within its teams.
Stagecoach Yorkshire’s operations manager at Rawmarsh depot, Dawn Murphy, received recognition at the UK Bus Awards 2023 by winning ‘Manager of the Year’.
Ms Murphy has spent more than 44 years in the industry, and her colleagues refer to her as an "industry powerhouse".
Stagecoach Manchester's operations director, Rebecca Rathore also features in the list of female achievers.
Having started with a Saturday job in a ticket office while at university, Ms Rathore now boasts 22 years of experience in transportation.
She was also a winner at the 2023 routeone Awards, taking home the ‘Manager of the Year’ award.
Ms Rathore earned a spot on the 2023 Northern Power Women’s Future List, highlighting the leaders and changemakers of tomorrow and won the Customer / Passenger Leader Award at the 2023 Everywoman in Transport and Logistics Awards.
The video Stagecoach has produced to celebrate International Women's Day can be viewed on YouTube.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here