Women in transport

1915 - The new Bakerloo line extension opens at Maida Vale station. It is the first Tube station to be staffed entirely by women

Mrs G. Duncan becomes the first woman bus conductor in London when she starts work with the Thomas Tilling Company on route 37

1916 - The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) is formed

1918 - The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) is created and 32,000 women join up. WRAFs dispatched to bases in Britain, France and Germany become a major asset to the war

1919 - Katherine and Rachel Parsons launch The Women's Engineering Society (WES) to promote the study and practice of engineering among women. WES's first secretary, Caroline Haslett, goes on to profoundly influence women in the industry

1923 - Dorothee Aurelie Pullinger becomes the first female car designer when she designs the Galloway, a car specifically for women. Pullinger also becomes the first female member of the Institution of Automobile Engineers

1928 - In Britain, women gain equal voting rights to men

1930 - Amy Johnson receives worldwide recognition when she becomes the first woman pilot to fly solo from England to Australia

1936 - Phyllis Pearsall's London A-Z is published. It quickly becomes the most popular indexed street map of the city

1945 - Waterloo Bridge is completed. It is nicknamed the Ladies Bridge because of the predominantly female workforce who built it

1965 - Labour MP Barbara Castle becomes Minister of Transport and introduces breathalysers, compulsory seatbelts and national speed limits

1968 - Strike action by sewing machinists at the Dagenham Ford factory forces company plants to close nationwide. This strike action eventually leads to a pay rise and a more serious consideration of the equal pay for women issue on the political agenda

1970 - Barbara Castle, now Minister of Employment, passes the Equal Pay Act

1972 - Air hostess-turned-pilot, Yvonne Pope, becomes the first woman in Britain to fly a commercial jet

1974 - Jill Viner is London Transport's first woman bus driver

1975 - The Sexual Discrimination Act and Employment Protection Act are introduced. Among the many changes, statutory maternity leave is enforced and these Acts make it illegal to discriminate against women on the grounds of gender. Also, Doris Pitts becomes the first Black female bus driver in London 

1978 - Karen Harrison becomes the first woman train driver's assistant and Hannah Dadds becomes the first female train operator on the Underground

1979 - Susan Atyeo becomes the first woman signal operator on the Underground

1980 - Lynn Rippelmeyer becomes the first woman to pilot a Boeing 747 and the first woman to captain a Jumbo Jet across the Atlantic. Two years later she is one of the first, all-female crew of a Boeing 747

1983 - Anne Winter becomes British Rail's first female train driver

1984 - Helen Clifford becomes the first woman bus mechanic

1986 - An amendment to the Sexual Discrimination Act enables women to retire at the same age as men. This also lifts the legal restrictions which prevent women from working night shifts in factories

1991 - Dr Helen Sharman becomes the first British astronaut in space as a member of the Russian scientific space mission, Project Juno. She is also the first woman to visit the Mir space station

1993 - With women officially integrated into the Royal Navy, the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) is disbanded

1999 - Margaret Grieco becomes Britain's first Professor of Transport and Society. She becomes actively involved in developing gendered approaches to transport in both the developing and developed world

2008 - Jean Venables is the first woman president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)

2012 - Crossrail receives its first pair of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs), Phyllis and Ada. TBMs are traditionally named after women, in homage to St Barbara, the patron of tunnellers. In this case, the TBMs refer to Phyllis 'A-Z' Pearsall and Ada Lovelace

2013 - Shelia Holden is elected as the first woman president of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT)

2014 - The first National Women in Engineering Day (NWED) celebrates the achievements of women in engineering