‘Idle Women’ depicts everyday life on “the cut” and the struggles of working in a predominantly male environment. The author shares experiences of enrolling, first impressions of boats and crews, surviving a bombing raid on the Regent’s Canal, loading at Regent’s Canal Dock, being frozen in, and travelling to Birmingham and Oxford. The title of the book comes from a badge trainees received, bearing the letters “IW” (for Inland Waterways), which earned them the nickname “Idle Women.” This text was originally published in 1947.