 PHOTO BY MEGAN FOUCHT |
A group of firefighters tumbled out of the smoke of a simulated house fire at the San Francisco Fire Department’s Treasure Island training facility Friday. As they reconvened with their trainer, helmets, SCBAs and bulky turnouts were shed to reveal teams consisting entirely of women.
The scene described above is a rare one, considering that across the country, women make up a small percentage of active firefighters. However, that is something those in attendance at last week’s 12th annual Women in the Fire Service International Conference hope will change.
According to 2005 statistics from Women in the Fire Service Inc., there are approximately 6,140 female firefighters in the United States and its holdings. There are more than 1 million firefighters total in the United States, according to 2005 statistics from the U.S. Fire Administration.
More than 500 people – mostly women – attended the WFSI event in Oakland, Calif., with representatives from across the United States as well as Canada, Great Britain, Ghana, Japan, Germany, Australia, Denmark and Sweden.
During the conference, attendees had the chance to train both in and outside the classroom with courses such as extrication training, live-fire situations, critical incident stress management, aquatic rescue and wildfire management.
While the training and classroom exercises were no different than if their male colleagues had been present, classes such as Confronting Internalized Sexism and Combating Sexism in the Fire Service encouraged students to share their stories and develop strategies for dealing with unequal treatment.
“The reality is that women comprise 2 percent of firefighters in the United States,” said Alameda County, Calif., Administrator Susan Muranishi in her address during Thursday’s opening ceremony. “Women have also yet to achieve the same (level of) earning as men. In most professions, women are also held at a different standard: a higher one.”
Keynote speaker and two-time Olympic Champion in the pentathalon Marilyn King noted that when she began competing, there were no women’s bathrooms, no women in the weight room and being strong and muscular was considered unattractive.
 PHOTO BY MEGAN FOUCHT |
King drew correlation between the hurdles she faced and those encountered by women in the fire service today.
“One of the things we all have in common is that we’re all pioneers,” King said. “We were seized by a thought and then we did what we had to do. Twenty-five years ago, the door wasn’t just shut, it was locked.”
Today, King said, the door is open and women need to make a space for themselves in the firehouse.
Quoting anthropologist Margaret Mead, King said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”