By Daniel Thigpen
The Record, Stockton, Calif.
LODI, Calif. — About 90 years passed before the Lodi Fire Department added its first woman to a firehouse.
Today, Aimee Murry is second-in-command of day-to-day operations for 60 firefighters. Promoted to division chief last month, she still is the only female firefighter on the department’s roster.
Women have made strides in attaining positions long held by men, from politics to public safety to the private sector.
But the number of women chasing down fires, in Lodi and throughout the country, still are few and far between. Rarer are women holding leadership positions in their departments, making Murry’s recent ascent even more significant.
The reasons are numerous, according to fire officials, experts and those in the ranks. Some departments recruit women less often. Others use physical agility tests that fewer women pass. If they do get the job, some women face harassment, resentment or ill-fitting equipment.
Many qualified women simply do not envision themselves entering such a traditionally male-dominated field, Stockton fire Capt. Sharlene Brown said.
Brown, who comes from a family of firefighters, said she would not have thought to apply for the job had her father not encouraged her. In 1985, she became one of Stockton’s first two women to join the department.
“There’s a lot of women who eliminate themselves,” from applying, Brown said. “There’s a lot of women who can physically do the job.”
Of the 350,000 paid firefighters in the nation, only 3.7 percent, or about 11,000, are women, according to a 2008 report commissioned by the International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services.
Among 291 metropolitan areas, more than half of fire departments, or about 51 percent, had no paid female firefighters, the fire group reported.
Out of Stockton’s 276 firefighters, two are women. In Tracy, there are three out of 75.
When Tracy Satowski joined the Stockton Fire Department two decades ago, she said she not only had to prove herself as a rookie, but she felt additional pressure to show she could handle the job.
So she ran, not walked, when asked to get something. Satowski, who grew up running marathons and lifting weights, often volunteered to pick up heavy equipment.
There were other awkward challenges. Her first turnout coat, she said, was so long she could not lift her legs when climbing a ladder, so she had to shorten it six inches.
Now 47, she said the grueling work has paid off. She has camaraderie with her male counterparts in the dormitory-style firehouse and said she is treated with respect.
She even jokes that she misses her makeshift restroom -- a curtain drawn over a portion of the firehouse bathroom -- since replaced with a permanent women’s restroom.
“If you can do the job, (gender) is not an issue,” Satowski said.
Many female firefighters still report on-the-job discrimination or harassment, according to the fire group’s report.
When Brown made the department, a couple of long-time firefighters resigned in protest, she said. When she earned the captain’s position, one person declared, “I’ve never taken orders from a woman, and I won’t start now.”
Physical testing requirements also appear to have an impact on women’s numbers. According to the fire group’s report, less than half of women, or about 47 percent, report passing physical ability tests at fire departments.
There is no consistent testing program throughout the country, the report found, with physical requirements varying among agencies.
One rigorous test that has grown in use -- the Candidate Physical Ability test -- boasts an above average 68 percent pass rate for women, the report concluded.
Stockton began using that test in the late 1990s, which Stockton fire Chief Ron Hittle said made the application process more equitable.
But women largely still are not applying for fire positions. And in the tight economy, it is harder to target recruiting based on gender, he said.
“I think we have moved into a mode where we’re trying to recruit,” Hittle said. "(But) I don’t have the resources to send any of my firefighters out to recruit for anyone, let alone for women.”
Brown and Satowski acknowledge early challenges, but they hesitate to pin them all on their gender. Murry, hired to Lodi’s department more than 12 years ago, declined requests to be interviewed for this story. She has said she does not want to be singled out for her gender.
Brown said she wishes more women would realize they can flourish in fire departments.
“After 23 years, I should have a lot of women following me,” she said. “To look back and there’s none, that’s a little disappointing.”
Copyright 2009 The Record