There are few women among Metro's 340 authorised officers, just 16 per cent, but the rail operator wants to change this.

Ultimately the company wants to ramp up the figure to 50 per cent. It has just won an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act so that it can specifically target women in a new recruitment campaign.

The exemption strategy has already been used to recruit many more women as train drivers: 35 to 45 per cent of Metro train drivers are women now, compared to 16 to 18 per cent just three years ago.

It is fair to say authorised officers have an image problem, but Ms Kamarinos insists they are mostly misunderstood, and that she loves her line of work, which is why she stuck with the job after graduating from university.

"There is not enough exposure of what they do," she says. "People see them as just about issuing fines to people, they don't see the other side where we have provided customer assistance."

Issuing fines to fare evaders is an important part of the job, but Ms Kamarinos has also reunited a lost child with its family, helped non-English speaking tourists with directions, and helped a homeless man who was in a bad way into care.

Being smaller, Ms Kamarinos admits people sometimes try to "overpower" her when caught fare evading.

"But it's how you talk to them. You talk nicely to people," she says. "Two per cent of the people, no matter what you do it's not going to work. Ninety-eight per cent of the people, if you talk nicely, show respect, they calm down."

Three times this decade the Victorian Ombudsman has made damning findings about authorised officers and their failure to de-escalate confrontations, resorting instead to the heavy-handed use of force.

The most recent ombudsman's investigation, from February, recommended that officer training shift towards "an emphasis on customer service, and defusing and de-escalating conflict".

To that end, authorised officers have recently begun to go on hot chocolate patrols, serving commuters hot drinks at stations in an effort to engage with people other than while checking tickets.

Ms Kamarinos admits people are often "suspicious" about these exchanges but says it is important to show a different side to the job.

"I think the people don't want to approach us even though we want to talk to them, they get very suspicious, so this is another forum ... where people can see that these people are not just scary, burly men."

Metro spokeswoman Pauline O'Connor said there were many reasons the company wanted to recruit more women into the organisation.

"This is part of our long-term strategy to improve the gender balance at Metro and better reflect our customer base, and society in general," she said.