Corby's Tata women of steel celebrate International Women's Day

Female workers in Corby’s steel industry have spoken about their experiences of working in a male-heavy organisation to help mark International Women’s Day.

Tata Steel in Corby put on a series of events today (Wednesday, March 8) to support female employees at the town’s Weldon Road plant.

Workshops on themes including self-doubt, unconscious bias and the importance of allies were made available to all staff as well as a talk from keynote speaker Criminology Professor Debbie Jones, of Swansea University.

Female staff were also encouraged to get together to form supportive bonds at the relaunch of the Steel Women’s Network which took place at lunchtime.

The whole event was aimed at helping promote equity – the theme for this year’s IWD.

Women who work for Tata spoke to the Northants Telegraph about the challenges they’ve faced over the years and how things have changed for the better more recently.

Emma Bolderston joined the British Steel graduate scheme in 1995. She said: “It’s always been a male dominated environment and it still is. But I’ve been lucky to move up through the company and now I’m HR Manager for the Corby site.

"I don’t think of myself as being in a minority here as HR is heavily female, but I couldn’t really have asked for a more supportive environment.

"When I came back off maternity leave after I had my first son I said I wanted to work part time and they just asked what hours I wanted to do and that was that.

"I have noticed in the last few years we’re getting many more flexible working requests from men. If we want women to be able to work more flexibly then we need me to do their bit too.”

Rachel Pike started at British Steel 28 years ago. She said there’s been sweeping changes in the treatment of women since then.

She said: “It could be quite intimidating when we first started taking meetings back then, especially with some of the union officials.

"Some of the terminology used toward us was just normal then really and people didn’t really know there was anything wrong with it.

"Women weren’t always taken at their word, not just here but in wider society.

"But the last few years has been very different. Things have definitely changed for the better.”

Leanne McMullan has been at the site for 30 years after arriving as a 17-year-old on a YTS scheme. She said: “They used to call us sweetheart and wolf whistle when we walked across the mill.

"It’s only looking back that you realise how bad it was. Things are different now and you do build up a better resilience over the years.

"The #metoo movement and women sharing their experiences among themselves has helped to change things.

"The change has got to come from across society really.”

Sara Boaden worked for British Steel then took 20 years out of work to bring up her children. She returned to Tata Steel 15 months ago where she now works as Systems and Process Development Manager.

She said that the support and encouragement from other employees had really helped her to take the big step back into the workforce.

“I wasn’t sure I could do it but a colleague told me he was sure I could,” she said. “There was a lot of self-doubt at first.

"Part of the reason I didn’t come back after having my son was that I didn’t want to be that woman who went off all the time to look after her kids if they were sick.

"But the difference now is that men also go off to look after their sick children so it’s become much more accepted. It’s been a big shift.”

You can find out more about International Women’s Day here.