Women in Transport – 8th March 2017

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Pictured above is Phyllis Pearsall who was a British painter and writer who founded the Geographers’ A-Z Map Company. She created London’s first popular indexed street map.

I only found out recently that Phyllis was born in South East London a stones throw away from where I grew up. Both sharing a passion for Transport and Art I am in awe of a women who had achieved so much in her career, yet is widely unknown by most of the general public.

She had become a portrait painter by profession and then became lost in London one day during 1935, whilst using the latest map she could find, which was 17 years old. This stimulated her to produce a new map to cover the rapidly expanding area of London, including places of interest such as museums and bus routes. The work involved walking 3,000 miles to check the names of the 23,000 streets of London, waking up at 5am every day, and not going to bed until after an 18-hour working day.

Next Wednesday 8th March is International Women’s day and here at the Community Transport Association we will be releasing a blog from our Chair: Susan Evans who currently works for Alstom Transport. Susan will be giving her thoughts on her own passion for Transport alongside insights from our membership – we are currently asking our members the following questions:

• What is your experience of being a woman in transport? 
• What is your hope/aspiration for women entering transport in the future?
•  How can we inspire more women to work in transport?

I hope that by sharing Phyllis’s story you will want to share your passion for Transport. I cannot wait to share your story!

We would love for you to get involved and tell us your thoughts about International Women’s day and the role of women in community transport, email hello@ctauk.org