On Feb. 23, 2018, the San Diego city attorney announced that a long-planned two-day Girls’ Empowerment Camp, intended to educate teenaged girls about work in the fire service, had been canceled. The reason for the cancelation was a letter from an attorney to the city, complaining that his client’s son had been refused consideration for participation in the camp.
It is unclear whether the boy had actually tried to enroll in the camp, or whether he did so in a timely way (two days after the announcement of the camp dates, the organizers already had a waiting list for applicants.)
On March 1, the San Diego mayor’s office announced that the camp would in fact occur at some unspecified later date.
Whether this camp was legal under San Diego statute is a question for the lawyers. But it is worth talking about why such camps exist and where their potential value lies.
Fire camps for girls occur across the country. They are sponsored by local and regional emergency services organizations, and in at least one case, hosted by a state fire academy. Sometimes these camps are run in partnership with other organizations, such as the Girl Scouts of America. The camps may last from one day to a week.
The purpose of these camps is to introduce girls to the fire service and empower them to believe that they could pursue a career or vocation in emergency services, if they choose to do so at a later date. The camps are not pre-employment events or linked to test preparation for hiring with a fire department. The girls targeted for inclusion are usually 14-16 years old.
Presenting the fire service as a career option for girls
Why would girls need an experience like this to believe they could be firefighters, but boys would not need such an experience? The numbers tell part of the story.
Today in the United States, women account for only around 5 percent of all career firefighters. That means that most girls (or anyone else for that matter) have never seen a woman who is a firefighter.
If you never see someone who looks like you doing a job, the odds of you wanting to do that job are slim. For many girls, being a firefighter just seems impossible, something that they have never thought of. It’s not that they wouldn’t want the job or do well at the job. They don’t even know that the job is an option for them.
For most young men, the situation is different. Being a “fireman” is something many if not most little boys imagine very early in their development. Go to any Touch a Truck event and see who is clambering into the front seat of the fire engine. Look at movies, TV, children’s books, other media, marketing. Men are firefighters. That’s normal. Women may sometimes be firefighters, but if so, it is unusual.
Gender disparity has origins in fire service history
This disparity did not come about because women just naturally didn’t want to be firefighters. They were actively barred from being considered for such jobs until the mid-1970s to mid-1980s. More than one woman had her fire department application thrown into the trash in front of her during that time. Once on the job, women were often faced with harassment and discrimination, behavior that continues to this day in some organizations.
Many fire department leaders have approached me over the years, bemoaning the fact that they want to hire a more diverse workforce, including women, but despite their efforts, few women go through the testing process or once through it, accept an offered position.
In some cases, the fact that women don’t become firefighters is not because they are not qualified or would not excel at or love the job, but simply because they cannot imagine themselves in that position.
And that is the main purpose of the fire camp experience, to demonstrate to girls who are still impressionable and open about their futures: You can do this. Look, here are women not much older than you. We can do it. So can you.
Do boys need support and guidance in understanding their career options also? Absolutely. Where men have been underrepresented in professions, such as nursing, focused outreach has had positive effects. But boys generally don’t need to be shown that they can be firefighters. At this point, girls still do. And I am sure I am not alone in looking forward to the day when this is no longer needed.
