Kathryn Brown, Truck Driver

Kathryn grew up on a farm, and was driving tractors from the age of six. Although Agricultural College seemed like a natural step, she still wasn’t sure if farming was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Kathryn got married at twenty-one, and had three children within three years. She spent the next twenty years juggling family and work as a chef, until her ‘midlife crisis’ hit and she realised that she needed a change of career. In 2015, Kathryn applied for her truck licence, hung up her apron, and hasn’t looked back since.

In the UK and Ireland today just over 1% of drivers of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are women. That rises to almost 6% in the US, still less than three in fifty. With long nights on the road, the hours aren’t family-friendly, and the seating and controls in HGVs are designed around male stature. But that doesn’t put some women off. For Kathryn Brown, as for all dedicated truckers, it’s about “love of driving, regardless of the weather,” and the freedom of the open road. In 2016 a Twitter poll, carried out by the Freight Transport Association, revealed that 79% of women would like to get behind the wheel of a truck.

Photo: Beta Bajgart