The Women of San Francisco Transit, Yesterday and Today

Transit Employee Appreciation Day is coming up on March 18, and March is Women’s History Month. In honor of both, we’re celebrating the women of Muni, past and present. 

This episode introduces us to several women whose work helps people move throughout San Francisco. And we discuss how a teenager who would go on to become a famous writer and activist worked for a time as one of the city’s first female streetcar conductors. The episode features San Francisco Director of Transportation Julie Kirschbaum, Muni Operator Shanita Anderson, Senior Operations Managers Jasmin Charles and Leda Rozier, Transit Training Manager Omozele Biggins, retired Cable Car Grip Fannie Mae Barnes and Market Street Railway President and CEO Rick Laubscher. 

Transcript

MELISSA CULROSS, HOST: Women are an important part of San Francisco transit, and they are telling us their career stories.

JULIE KIRSCHBAUM, SAN FRANCISCO DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION: I never envisioned that I would have an opportunity to work on such interesting and complex problems. 

BUS ANNOUNCEMENT: Doors are opening

MELISSA: Welcome to Taken with Taken with Transportation, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s official podcast. I’m your host, Melissa Culross. Muni rider satisfaction is up, according to our latest customer survey. The system received its highest overall rating in the 25 year history of that survey. We recently spoke with some riders who echo those sentiments.

MUNI RIDER-1: I am so appreciative to the people that run Muni, that operate the trains and make sure that they get me to work and to my appointments. I’m just coming back from a medical appointment, and I wouldn’t have been able to get there without Muni.

MUNI RIDER-2: I take the 14R every day to work. It’s, like, fast, and it’s a short walk from my house.

MUNI RIDER-3: I’ve never owned a car in San Francisco. I’ve never needed to own a car in San Francisco because our public transportation is so good.

MELISSA: This is great timing since Transit Employee Appreciation Day is coming up on March 18th. And March is Women’s History…or HERstory…Month. So, given all of this, we’re taking an opportunity in this episode to celebrate transit. Specifically, women in transit! 

We begin with a history lesson from Rick Laubscher. He’s the president and CEO of Market Street Railway, Muni’s non-profit preservation partner.

RICK LAUBSCHER, MARKET STREET RAILWAY PRESIDENT AND CEO: Before World War II, streetcar motormen and conductors were all men and almost all white. There were no Black platform people, as they called them, and, uh, no women. With the war, people going off to fight in wars, and the defense industries, Muni, then, hired its first Black operator, Audley Cole in 1940. But Market Street Railway, its competitor, much larger organization, didn’t have any Black platform people and no women. But as the war went on, they started to get a few women on the platform, mostly as conductors. And they got more and more African American operators. And in 1944, the same year that Muni, later at the end of the year, merged with Market Street Railway, a young woman showed up at the Market Street Railway office on Sutter Street and said, “I would like to be a streetcar conductor.”

MELISSA: That teenager was Marguerite Johnson, but the world later would come to know her by the name she took professionally as a poet, author and activist: Maya Angelou. 

RICK: She was going to George Washington High. She had the summer off. She had seen the first female conductors in their snazzy uniforms. She thought they were snazzy and said, “I wanna do that.” She went to her mother and her mother said, “If you want something, go get it.” So, she went down to the Market Street Railway office and applied for a job, and they said no. She lied about her age. She said she was 18. And she kept coming back every single day, even though they never saw her. So, sooner or later, after two weeks, they finally gave up and hired her. And she went out and started, um, being a conductor on the streetcar for several months. And wrote about it in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Our non-profit, which has the same name as the old transit company, did a lot of research to try to figure out exactly where she operated, what kinds of cars, streetcars she operated. And we kinda came to the conclusion, based on the employment practices of the day and stuff like that, she was probably on the extra board. The extra board being operators who are on standby and are at the car barn to jump into service if somebody doesn’t show up, is sick or out. And she tells the story in Caged Bird about rumbling along on the streetcar toward the beach along the edge of Golden Gate Park. Well, at the time, there were two streetcar lines that were the edge: the 5 on the north and the 7 on the south. We think she most likely operated the 7 line. And she also wrote about how her mother would actually follow her out in their car. She, her mother, would drop her off at the car barn. And then her mother would follow the first run all the way to the beach and back because it was pre-dawn, and she was worried about her daughter’s security. And this went on, her employment, apparently for several months, but of course, she made that brief time famous by writing about it in a very famous book. 
 
MELISSA: So, even though this was only a few months, would it be safe to say she was a trailblazer.
 
RICK: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. There were very, very few African America female platform people in the streetcar service and none on the cable cars at all. She went on to do so many great things that it hasn’t the kind of attention, until lately, that it might have gotten.

MELISSA: Flash forward more than half a century to the late 1990s. Our streetcars no longer had conductors; just drivers. It had become quite common for women to work as conductors on the cable cars, but the cable car grips, the people who operate the cars’ brakes, were and always had been men. That is, until Fannie Mae Barnes became the first female grip in 1998. We interviewed Barnes for a previous episode of this podcast, and she talked about breaking that glass ceiling. 

FANNIE MAE BARNES, FORMER CABLE CAR GRIP: I pulled it off by working out extensively, building up my upper body strength. The job itself is very extensive in how you control the cable car, as well as try to keep from injuring yourself. But the public? Oh, they loved it. When I would come downtown on the cable car, oh, they’d go… Everybody wanted to ride my cable car. Impossible. A line of people waiting, you know. But it was received very well by the people. They was excited to see a female up front on the cable car.

MELISSA: Barnes may have been the first, but she was not the last female grip. And today, women work in all levels of the SFMTA, from our customer-facing staff to our director of transportation. So, let’s meet some of them.

OMOZELE BIGGINS, TRANIST TRAINING MANAGER: Hello, I’m Omozele Biggins, transit training manager. My job is…I do everything. Like, you know, you name it. If it’s payroll. If it’s compliance. Anything that have to do with training, I do. I started as an operator. It was a eye-opener because I’ve never taken the bus before I became a transit operator. I have a brother that came to visit me from England. He decided he wants to take the public transit. So, we took the public transit, and I met a lady. She was driving the 60-footer. Then it was, um, 15 Third Street. And the way she handled the bus, and the way she was in control of everything that was happening, I looked at her. I was like, “Wow. This is cool. You know, I think I can do this.” Then I decide to apply. You know, it was the best decision ever because, you know, I learned a lot. Just being a bus, professional operator give me that opportunity to be able to know the four corners of San Francisco.

MELISSA: That was back in 2002. Biggins was promoted from operator to transit supervisor and then further into management. She has held her current position for the last decade. 

OMOZELE: Every time I see one of the people that I’ve trained, oh my gosh, I feel so fulfilled. Because, you know, the goal is for us to be able to instill in other people. And when I see that, and people come to me, it’s just, it’s great.

MELISSA: We ask Biggins which of her roles, if any, has been her favorite. She does not hesitate to answer.

OMOZELE: Being an operator is the best ever (laughs) because I was, you know, always outside. And I had the opportunity to meet with different people: people from San Francisco, people from other countries. So, I was able to, you know, really meet a lot of people. Being a supervisor was also great because I became a person that the new coming in look up to because I had to train them. I had to give them something to believe in and believe in the opportunity that SFMTA has to offer.

SHANITA ANDERSON, MUNI OPERATOR: Hi, my name is Shanita Anderson, and my position is transit operator. I’ve been with the agency now going on 27 years. I started at the age of 25. And I just wanted a better career. And I just like what I do. I like what I do; I’m a peoples person. You know, I like interacting with people. So, this fits me perfect with the customer service. I operate the 31 line. It’s from the beach to downtown. The most part I like about it is being able to connect with those down in the Tenderloin that are less fortunate. Also, there’s a lot of seniors in the, um, Tenderloin. And I’m just always helping them on and off the coach with their carts and everything. And they’re so friendly. You know, a smile brightens their day, and I, I’m really comfortable doing that line.

MELISSA: When Anderson isn’t helping people get around the city, she’s devoted to another project.

SHANITA: I am a breast cancer survivor. So, on my free time, I run my non-profit. I help other women that are in the fight. I also provide the prosthetic bras for women that cannot afford reconstruction. I provide them wigs; the ladies that are going through chemotherapy. And I feel good that I can get ‘em to their chemos, their radiation appointments, you know? I’m on my first book…um, about my journey on breast cancer. So, I’m excited about that.

BUS ANNOUNCEMENT: 31 Balboa to Downtown

JASMIN CHARLES, TRANSIT SENIOR OPERATIONS MANAGER: My name is Jasmin Charles. I’ve been with the MTA for about 16 years. A Woods Division operator was my first step into the door where you learn how to drive all the different community lines. And I used to do the old 71, which is now our 7, uh, the 9. And probably my favorite was the N Express.

MELISSA: Charles moved on from the driver’s seat, worked her way up and now is a Transit senior operations manager. She oversees the work of Muni supervisors, including train controllers and the staff of our Transit Management Center. We ask her why she decided to pursue a career in transit by becoming an operator all those years ago.

JASMIN: At the time I was a stay at home mom. So, I was like, “Eh, I’m tired of staying at home.” So, I just applied, and then one day they called and said, “Hey, you wanna start?” And then, uh, you go through the interview process at the training department at the time. And then it was just, like, one day at a time until I ended up where I am today.
 
MELISSA: Did you always aspire to go into management? Or is it something that, as the opportunities came up, you just kept saying yes?
 
JASMIN: I didn’t aspire to go into management. I like to live my day, like, one day at a time. But it’s just one of those things where you just try different things and do different things. And I do try really hard to, like, do a good job at whatever it is that I do. So, I have enjoyed my career. Like, being an operator and even being a supervisor is a really rewarding job. Helping people get to and from where they need to go. Helping them with questions, issues, it is, uh, like, uh, instant kind of gratification type of job. In the manager position, it’s a little bit different because you don’t have, like, those, daily interactions with the service that you provide management for. But I do enjoy my career here. I do love transit. It’s something that kind of grows on you ‘cause you take the bus, like, as a kid, or trains once you get older. But you don’t really understand, like, the full breadth of it until you understand, like, it moves people. It helps people. It is…it’s good.
 
MELISSA: What would you like people to know about transit employees, the people who move San Francisco, essentially?
 
JASMIN: It’s a, like, a really hard thankless job, especially for the operators. Everybody deserves, like, respect and appreciation. And even though people get angry or upset, they shouldn’t take it out on the first operator they see because that is not, it’s not their fault.

STATION ANNOUNCEMENT: Arriving westbound: two-car M to Balboa Park station. Next J in seven minutes. K in…

LEDA ROZIER, TRANSIT SENIOR OPERATIONS MANAGER: My name is Leda Rozier. I’m the senior operations manager over division management in Transit. So, as a senior operations manager, I’m responsible for all of the bus, trolley, cable car, rail divisions where basically, I work with the managers. I’m making sure that, uh, we follow the agency’s rules regulations. That we’re staying consistent. Uh, we treat operators with respect. I believe a lot in training. I also believe that people are gonna give you what you give them. So, I work a lot with division managers, making sure that we’re working the morale. I have super division managers that I work with, that I don’t have to worry about any of the stuff. So, it’s a lot of, like, mentoring them. Keeping them updated. Making sure that the operators are all treated fairly and equally. So, it can be challenging at times. I’ve been with the agency, it’s going to be 19 years in October. My background outside of the agency was a combination of human resources at various companies and also, my career within the military was also within human resources. 

MELISSA: We ask Rozier about her military service.

LEDA: At the age of 19, one of my friends…she wanted to go under the buddy system. I really did know what I wanted to do. So, I agreed. She couldn’t go for whatever reason. So, I ended up going by myself. About a year after, I was an enlisted person. I wanted to leave. I wanted to actually go active duty, and I was talking to my commander. And he didn’t want me to go. So, he asked me if I was interested in going into, um, the State Officers Academy. I didn’t know what that was all about. So, of course, I said okay. There were 32 of us that started the academy that met once a month and then two, uh, weeks out of the year. And then I went and worked with drill sergeants who would work with basic trainings from all over the country. After a number of years, I joined what was called the Civil Affairs Unit. And basically, what we did is we went to different countries, foreign countries, and taught them how to handle certain situations within, if there’s a national disaster. Uh, and then I retired. It’s been an amazing experience because it taught me discipline. I always wanted to go to college. So, it forced me to go to college. I was actually also working a fulltime job because a lot of it was in the reserves. So, I was raising a family and working on my Masters. And I was able to do all that, and, again, it was because of the discipline that the military provided me.

MELISSA: On top of that discipline, Rozier says she is who she is today thanks to women she admired while growing up.

LEDA: I was raised by strong grandmother, okay. I had a good role model from my sister. She, you know, was in politics in the city. So, I come from a strong group of strong women that had goals. But as a woman, it hasn’t been easy. But I have not let that get in my way because I learned early enough that as long as I know what I know, and I don’t have a problem with saying, “I don’t know,” that has helped me. I don’t walk around with, you know, what do they call it? A know-it-all? Because I’m not. I don’t have a problem going to an operator and saying, “Hey, how do you do this? I don’t understand this.” And I think people do respect you more when you do that than whatever gender you are.

MELISSA: Finally, we hear from another woman who has broken a glass ceiling in San Francisco transportation.

JULIE KISCHBAUM, DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION: Hi, I’m Julie Kirschbaum, and I’m the director at the SFMTA. February marks my 19th year at the agency. It’s been an incredible adventure. When I started here, I never envisioned myself at the agency so long, or that I would have an opportunity to work on such interesting and complex problems. I started at the SFMTA running a system study called the Transit Effectiveness Project where we looked at all aspects of our transit service. And that gave me this incredible window into understanding our work, understanding how valued our service is to the people that use it every day, and really set me up as I continued to grow and advance in my career. When I was working on the Transit Effectiveness Project, I was in what at that time was the Construction and Planning Group. And when we shifted to implementation, the agency director at the time said that he was gonna move me to the Transit Division. And my first role in the Transit Division was the Transit Effectiveness Project implementation manager and Service Planning manager. I grew in that role and expanded to cover our Schedules Team, as well as Special Events. The Special Events work taught me so much about the complexity of our day-to-day operations. It’s also a great way to test out new things. From there, in 2017 I transitioned to the Chief Transportation Officer, and then around Halloween of 2018, I became the Transit Director and had the privilege of serving in that role for about six years until I started my current work.

MELISSA: Other women have served as acting transportation directors for the city, but Kirschbaum is the first woman to hold the position in a permanent capacity. We ask her what she likes most about the job.

JULIE: Some of my favorite things are getting to interact with our incredible staff and identifying, kind of, the right role for the right people. Encouraging people to step outside of their comfort zone and try new things and really seeing how the entire agency really functions, I think on many levels, as a family. I hear a lot from other women at the agency that seeing me in this position helps support and encourage them, which is incredible and something I want to do more of.

MELISSA: And Kirshbaum adds what she would like everyone to understand about our staff.

JULIE: I want people to know how dedicated to public service transit workers are and that the work is so complex and intertwined. Our customers see operators driving the vehicles. What they don’t see is that they’re also often serving as social workers, emergency responders and, just, you know, the person that gives you that smile when you needed it the most. And they’re supported by many, many teams behind the scenes: our car cleaners and mechanics, the people maintaining our infrastructure, the station agents and the custodians, the supervisors in our control center. So many folks working together to keep the system safe and reliable. 

MELISSA: Thank you for joining us on Taken with Transportation. We’re a production of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and you can find the latest episodes at SFMTA.com-slash-Podcast, as well as Apple, Spotify, our YouTube channel or wherever you listen. If you have a chance to thank your Muni operator, station agent or any member of our staff this Transit Employee Appreciation Day, please do. And of course, we encourage that every day of the year. I’m Melissa Culross. Be well and travel well.