Women in firefighting

History

Historically, firefighting has been dominated by men in both professional and volunteer contexts. Today there are numerous women who actively fight fire alongside their male counterparts. Modern firefighting demographics show that all firefighting and prescribed burning occupations in the United States have a growing female component. Fire ecologists in the U.S. are approximately 50% male and 50% female and fire-related occupations are being taken on by women increasingly throughout the world.

The first known female firefighter of the United States was a New Yorker named Molly Williams, who was said to be "as good a fire laddie as many of the boys."

During World War II women sometimes served in fire services in an auxiliary capacity to replace firemen who were drafted into the military.

Sandra Forcier, the first known paid female firefighter in the U.S., began working in 1973. In the United States, approximately 2% of all firefighters are female.

Terminology

Because of firefighting's predominantly male participants, the word "fireman" become synonymous with "firefighter." Now, as more and more women are joining the ranks, "firefighter" has become the preferred term, much as "policeman" and "chairman" are being replaced with the gender-neutral words "police officer" and "chair-person."

Challenges

Since women have only recently begun to be formally considered firefighters, there have been many difficult adjustments for the fire service, which is a practice steeped in tradition, formalized, para-military relationships and discrimination.

Facilities

One major hurdle to entrance into firefighting for women was the lack of facilities. The immediate problem of sleeping quarters and bathing areas had to be solved before women could participate fully in firefighting as an occupation and as a culture. Communal showers and open bunk halls were designed for men only. Today, although most stations are now designed to accommodate firefighters of both genders, many female firefighters still face issues related to their gender.

Protective Gear

One of the greatest difficulties experienced by most women in the fire service is ill-fitting protective gear. Not only are women usually smaller than men, they are also shaped differently, so gear designed for men often will not fit correctly. In an environment where uncovered skin can be almost instantly covered in full-thickness burns, it is essential that protective gear fit properly.

Discrimination

According to a study at Cornell University, "the underrepresentation of women in firefighting is an alarming inequity that needs to be immediately addressed,” said Francine Moccio, director of the institute and co-author of the report, “A National Report Card on Women in Firefighting,” which was presented at the International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services meeting, April 24, in Phoenix, Arizona. “Women are not getting recruited and hired because of an occupational culture that is exclusionary and unequal employment practices in recruiting, hiring, assigning and promoting women generally – and women of color in particular – in fire service,” Moccio added.

Sexual Dimorphism

According to the publication, LA Weekly, "Firefighters pull heavy lengths of hose, climb stairs while wielding giant power tools like chain saws, and lift 180-pound, 35-foot wooden ladders — akin to carrying a concrete lamppost. Firefighters' physicians say that a human expected to pull the heaviest hose lines must weigh at least 143 pounds. And that's just for starters. "Less than 10 percent body fat was not enough," says Mary, who purposely gained 15 pounds of muscle to achieve the bulk she needed."

There have been occasional charges of some departments lowering standards so that they could hire more women. In 2005, Laura Chick (the LA City Controller) stated in a report that Fire Chief Bamattre rolled back physical requirements and ordered that women were passed even if they failed their tests.

Sexual Harassment

In a survey conducted by Women in the Fire Service in 1995, 551 women in fire departments across the U.S were asked about their experiences with sexual harassment and other forms of job discrimination. Eighty-eight percent of fire service women responding had experienced some form of sexual harassment at some point in their fire service careers or volunteer time. Nearly seventy percent of the women in the survey said they were experiencing ongoing harassment at the time of the study. Of the 339 women who said they had complained about harassment, only a third (115 women) listed only positive outcomes: investigating/taking care of the problem, and disciplining the harasser. Twenty-six percent said they were retaliated against for reporting the incident.

See also

• Molly Williams - first known female firefighter in the United States.
• Bonnie Bleskachek - first open lesbian fire chief of a major metropolitan area in the United States (Minneapolis, 2005).
• Lillie Hitchcock Coit - volunteer firefighter in San Francisco in the 1920s and on.
• Dany Cotton - British. First woman to win the Queen's Fire Service Medal, highest ranking operational female firefighter in the country.

External links

• Firefighting women and sexual harassment
• Women Firefighters Can Take the Heat, but Few Firehouses Give Them the Chance
• abcnews
• Women in the Fire Service, Inc.