women
are finally in the driving seat and are
pushing
full speed ahead on gender equality in
the russian capital
irina is doing her dream job as a metro
driver
she started working at the moscow metro
almost 18 years ago
at the time she didn't know that women
couldn't legally drive the subway trains
now they finally can and irina says for
her it was worth the wait
somehow it drew me in the fact that it's
underground i guess
it's like flying but under the ground
before every shift irina gives the metro
train she'll be driving a once-over
she looks for damage and vandalism and
checks that all the fire extinguishers
are where they should be
a moment of calm before the empty cars
fill up with commuters again
irina has a lot of experience dealing
with passengers
she worked as a station guard on the
platform for years
now as a driver she tries to get a sense
of each individual metro train
her connection to the train she's
driving feels almost
spiritual to her in russia people say
the way a ship sails depends on what
name you give it
i treat each train like a person and i
think each train has a soul too
one train i drove had a male cell but
most of them are female
the feeling of driving the metro is like
pure happiness
i'm happy when i'm driving
irina is proud to be one of the first 12
female metro drivers
after all the moscow subway is legendary
its construction began in the 1930s
at the time the soviet government wanted
to build a palace for the people
for commuting workers and it shows
in the 1980s the government banned women
from the driver's seat of these trains
they said the metro is too deep
underground too loud
and too dark to be safe for women and
they said the constant vibration from
the trains could damage women's
so-called
child bearing function a new generation
brought
new trains and a drive for change though
it's not quite a u-turn
for now women drivers are only being
deployed in the most
modern trains and only on the
filiofskaya line which runs over ground
for part of its route
and that's despite the fact the women
have the exact same training as their
male counterparts
we don't differentiate between women and
men there is one single training program
and all the metro drivers need to know
it but of course
there are still the first women this
metro line is less busy
the volume of passengers isn't quite as
high
and because this line runs mainly over
ground it is less
of a health risk the moscow metro has
been celebrating its new generation of
women drivers
they've even released a limited edition
barbie for the occasion
admittedly not the most clear-cut symbol
for gender equality
there are advertisements for the dolls
in the subway itself
you can be who you want to be as the
slogan but for women in russia
that's still not quite true metal
manufacturing like the work in this
steel mill
is still off limits to women mining and
drilling on an oil rig are also
considered men's work
100 jobs are still banned for women
the list of banned jobs was initially
introduced after the second world war to
drive up the birth rate
this year the russian government
published an updated list
but lawmakers in the country are still
driven by traditional family values
and deep-seated patriarchal
these tough jobs and hard labor are
still seen as men's work in our society
also women are mothers
so providing for and taking care of
their health and their reproductive
functions
is important that is why we used
recommendations from doctors to
determine factors
that are harmful to women at work
is on her way to work she does her
commute there on the metro too
mixing with the other passengers ahead
of her shift
i think the moment will come when the
government allows women to carry out the
banned professions
i'm sure they are working on it already
the bans must be in place for a reason
the government is taking care of women
i would tell other women to keep
believing and keep hoping
then their dream will come true too no
matter who you want to become
everything is possible
irina already has her dream job and the
next group of women will start training
to become drivers soon
but outside of these metro tunnels
gender equality
is still a long way away
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