Women allowed to drive metro trains in Moscow

MOSCOW Metro said yesterday it had hired female drivers for the first time in its recent history, following recent changes in legislation prohibiting women from many professions.

The Russian capital’s transport network, which oversees the sprawling metro system, said that “the first female electric train drivers in modern history started working for the Moscow Metro”.

Built in the Soviet era as a Communist showpiece, the metro’s trains were historically operated by men because the work was listed on the government’s register of jobs deemed harmful for women’s health.

The ban on access for women to many professions was widely criticised and a labour ministry decree in September last year cut the number of exclusively male professions from 456 to around 100. The Moscow transport department said due to the automation of mechanical processes, operating trains is no longer “associated with heavy physical exertion”.

Russian Railways, the country’s railway monopoly, previously said it would also begin hiring female train drivers.