As of: March 8, 2024, 10:14 a.m
By: Dirk Walter
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Work at Deutsche Bahn is still primarily carried out by men.
Female managers are only slowly becoming more numerous.
Civil engineer Anna Pfund is one of them.
Munich - According to popular belief, women are usually found in the dining car on the train, perhaps also as train conductors.
But that is of course a cliché.
The railway wants to overcome its male dominance, or rather: at least curb it.
It's tedious.
Only five percent of train drivers are female train drivers.
In catering, 50 percent are women.
But the railway is trying.
The proportion of women increases by a few tenths of a percentage point every year; it is currently 24.1 percent.
A strong signal was the appointment of the former manager of the Berlin local transport company, Sigrid Nikutta, as head of the freight railway DB Cargo.
Her motto according to the career platform LinkedIn: “Subordination is not my strength.”
Anna Pfund (32) is a qualified civil engineer and is responsible for renovation projects at DB InfraGo in Munich.
© Marcus Schlaf
Anna Pfund also says that you can't function in a man's world without assertiveness.
The 32-year-old studied civil engineering in Zurich and at the Technical University of Munich.
After a recruiting day, she moved from an engineering office to the railway and is now head of renewal projects at DB InfraGo in Munich.
Still a “men’s job”: there are only two women out of a team of eleven
“You’re already in the minority,” she says.
Women might have to prove themselves a little more in construction than in the office, for example.
And “you are tested a little bit”.
In the eleven-person team there is only one other woman besides her, but “I have now hired two more women,” she reports.
So things are slowly making progress with the women's quota at the railway.
Of course, Anna Pfund can't just focus on the advancement of women.
Their job is to replace rails, sleepers and the substructure of tracks.
She is currently working at the Pasing depot - where the sidings for regional trains are being completely renewed.
The rails were built in 1964, as an embossing reveals.
We know that the railway is lagging behind when it comes to renewing its infrastructure, but that is ancient even by the railway's standards.
Dust and noise are part of the job description
At the back of the track a gravel plow rattles; it's crushing the track, as the railways say.
The cloud of dust caused by the yellow vehicle is getting threateningly closer.
But Anna Pfund doesn't let on and waits patiently in a crouch until the photographer has his photo in the box.
Dust and noise are part of the job description.
She also has to be well versed in the maze of sub-, top- and subsidiary companies within the railway.
There is the maintenance management, the surveying department, the structural engineering department, specialists for overhead lines, for construction logistics and the like.
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Everyone has a say when even just one meter of rail is replaced.
“It’s definitely a mess at the beginning, this railway cosmos,” says Anna Pfund.
Now she's got the hang of it, can easily distinguish between the three types of rails S54, S49 and UIC60 and knows that rails are delivered in 120 meter pieces.
Around 15 to 20 smaller and larger projects cross her desk: Dachau-Bachern, Traunstein, Freilassing, Planegg-Pasing and of course on the existing S-Bahn main line: there is always construction going on somewhere.
(By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you daily about all the important stories from Bavaria.)
Well connected in the world of rail women: Anna Pfund is one of 14 “train influencers”
Anna Pfund is well connected in the world of railway women.
She has been named one of 14 so-called trainfluencers by Allianz pro Schiene, so she regularly reports online about the train bubble and promotes women also being hired.
“I am a passionate railway worker who is passionate about my job and a strong railway,” is how she introduces herself.
Anna Pfund also regularly provides insight into her work on the LinkedIn platform - a respectable 2,800 people follow her.
When she recently made it onto the cover of “Bahn Manager Magazine,” she received a lot of praise: “Super cool, Anna,” it said, “Congratulations.
A true leader.”
Anna Pfund is also a member of the railway women's network.
Her most recent project was a Female ICE – a train with 100 percent female staff – that would run from Berlin to Frankfurt.
Unfortunately it was supposed to start on Thursday of all days.
But the train drivers' strike prevented this.
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