FHWorld19: Empowering Women in the Fire Service

Are there women in your fire department? If so, how many? Do you think female firefighters at the station affect crew dynamics?

In one of the more lively and interactive sessions at this year's Firehouse World in Los Angeles entitled "What Female Firefighters Want: Empowering Women in the Fire Service," a trio of San Diego firefighters posed these and other questions about the current climate for women in the fire service and how members of the fire service can inspire young girls to pursue firefighting careers.

Firefighters Jeri Miuccio and Amber Taddeo spoke at length about their personal stories and experiences entering the fire service in the previous decade, and Amber's husband Tony—also a San Diego firefighter—joined in to help them touch on some facts and fictions about the topic and showcase the burgeoning success of their Girls Empowerment Camp.

"When we started the Girls Empowerment Camp, we didn't really know what we were doing," Amber Taddeo said. "We thought it was just a recruitment tool to get women in the fire service. But by the end of our first camp, we looked around and thought, 'This is a movement.'"

Miuccio touched on some interesting statistics that illustrate the challenges of inspiring women into firefighting careers. Although women make up 47 percent of the overall workforce, they comprise less than 4 percent of the fire service. Women comprise a much larger 18 percent of the military, which is another traditionally male pursuit, so what is the fire service not doing to match those numbers?

"What is your department's environment like? Is it welcoming? Is it inclusive?" Miuccio asked. "Who is teaching in your academies? Do you have women teaching in your academies in order to help with technique? Sometimes we're just not as strong, so we have to focus on technique versus strength."

A noteworthy statistic that was offered was that San Diego Fire-Rescue had 90 female firefighters about 23 years ago, but it currently has less than 40.

"What happened?" Amber Taddeo asked. "Besides attrition, because of course people are going to retire, what are we not doing? Educating the public."

Shattering gender roles

A striking part of the presentation was when attendees were shown a slide of similar aged children—one boy and two girls. The boy was playing with a fire truck, while the girls were playing with dolls and stuffed animals. The point was evident: Traditional gender expectations are powerful.

"If you look at marketing for toys, you see boys playing with boy toys and girls playing with girl toys," Tony Taddeo said. "It's marketed that way. We embed these things in our kids, and when they come to that critical moment when they want to choose a career, a girl might not even think about the fire service."

So what can we do to change these expectations so girls know that the rewards of a fire service career are available to them? It starts with slowly changing the culture and promoting equality, increasing education and altering the perception of what a fire service career entails.

A young girl may not show interest in something like battling structure fires, but is she aware that most fire departments have a medical component?

The idea of perception also touches on the expectations of men. If some men haven't had the chance to work alongside women and respect what they are capable of, it may be hard to break down those barriers and preconceived notions.

"There are amazing men in the fire service. There are amazing men in our lives," Miuccio said. "But there are still some men who believe that women don't belong in the fire service."

Mentoring young girls and building environments where they can be challenged and prompted to succeed will go a long way toward recruiting more women into the fire service, and the Girls Empowerment Camp started by Amber Taddeo and Jeri Miuccio is doing just that.

"And this isn't about boosting numbers," Tony Taddeo said. "It's about finding good, quality people."

The two-day Girls Empowerment Camp is also open to boys, in fact, because Miuccio and the Taddeos believe that you can't increase inclusiveness by offering more exclusion, just in a different fashion.

"We started this as a simple recruiting tool, but we realized that we were empowering youth to believe in themselves and become more brave, become more confident," Amber Taddeo said.

Check out the Girls Empowerment Camp on Facebook.