Ideas for Increasing Women’s Role In Fire Service Voiced at Seminar
Recommendations aimed at expanding the role of women in the fire service have been published by the United States Fire Administration.
Widespread support is needed to successfully develop programs with sizable impact, and Administrator Gordon Vickery said the USFA is “fully committed to the entry of qualified women in the fire service.”
Participants at a USFA-sponsored seminar represented a wide variety of views on issues related to women in the fire service. Members of fire departments, women’s organizations and federal agencies provided an expansive view of the problems facing women in this profession.
The recommendations of the seminar on women in the fire service that was held in August 1979, are contained in a report, “The Role of Women in the Fire Service,” published recently by the USFA.
With emphasis placed on such issues as standard entry exams, physical training, supervisory training, equal employment opportunities and recruitment, the participants shared experiences and defined both questions and answers they have encountered.
Hiring procedures
Lowering standard entry exams for female applicants has been a debatable subject in recent years due to the increase in the number of women desiring careers in the fire service. According to Assistant Chief Carl Holmes of Oklahoma City, hiring standards and entry requirements are basically meant to measure a level of predictability of success of an applicant. Donna Brehm, a fire fighter in the Virginia Beach Fire Department, in referring to entrance exam requirements, said that if men have to meet certain standards, “there’s no reason I shouldn’t have to. It’s a job for a person. I don’t see anything wrong with having to meet the same requirements.”
Some participants voiced their bad experiences resulting from lowering physical standards, while others hoped to bring the performance of female applicants up to the standards. The validity of certain requirements was examined as well.
Participants recommended that guidelines for developing and evaluating valid entrance exams be established. In accordance with this, minimum objective performance skills, determined through research, should be enumerated and should reflect actual job performance skills. Management education programs, at both the fire service and government levels, are needed to help develop appropriate entrance exams for hiring the right person for the job, seminar members added.
According to a USFA-funded study conducted by Paradigm, Inc., both valid and job-related standards should never be lowered to allow the entrance of more women into the fire service, and generally, the participants agreed with this.
Women applicants
Recruitment was discussed, and seminar members agreed that women need to be made aware of the job opportunities in the fire service. With the help of media coverage, posters and flyers, a recruitment campaign was conducted in Seattle to encourage women applicants. Through press coverage and public service announcements, fire service personnel were able to reach women and describe the opportunities available to them.
Orientation programs have also been developed to explain in detail what is entailed in a fire service career. In some departments, sample written tests and agility exercises are shown as well. These programs either encourage women who have expressed an interest or discourage them. Because fire fighting is a nontraditional field for women, many are unaware of what is actually involved in fighting fires.
Sharing information
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of the conference was the discussion of experiences, background and ideas. The input came from department chiefs, public education officers, women from both fire-service-related and labor-oriented groups, as well as members of government agencies. Together, this group combined with efforts to better understand and cope with the issues facing women.
To more accurately measure the role women play, it was recommended by seminar members that data be gathered on how many women are actually in the fire service, what their needs are, and how departments can interrelate to improve existing programs. It was also suggested that a personnel workbook, including information on recruiting, training and promoting qualified women, be compiled to more clearly illustrate the procedures in various departments.
Fitness requirements
Physical agility tests in fire departments are not easy for women applicants to pass. The main question raised was how can females attain and retain the physical strength to meet these requirements? Fitness research and various physical fitness program methods were explored.
Al Stark, representing the Institute of Human Performance, told of the five major aspects of physical fitness, namely: muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance and body composition. In the female fitness training programs that he has observed, Stark said, it is “erroneous” to say that women cannot be trained.
Seattle implemented a pre-recruitment program for women that includes a half-day of weight lifting and endurance training and a half-day of fire department-related training. During the last six weeks of the seven-month prerecruit training, the women join a program for minority males, where strictly fire-related exercises are conducted to incorporate women into a male-oriented environment.
One woman fire fighter said, “I started out lifting weights and after a few months, incorporated the city’s agility test into a morning workout. Each morning before I went to work, I’d get up and go through the entire agility test, plus do a little weight work. After a year of training, I went through the actual test . . . I wanted the job very badly. I just zinged through the whole test.”
A standardized package was suggested to prepare applicants for the tests. Special needs must be studied to maintain physical performance.
It was recommended that the official procedure of national and local fire service officials would be to encourage the establishment of a formal policy statement accepting women and other minorities into the profession.
The status of civilians in the fire service was another debatable subject. Some thought there should be no distinction made between civilian and uniformed fire service members, while others felt that the reasoning behind this was to prevent women from joining fire departments. Others felt that civilian service should be developed so as to have a drawing power of its own.
Chief James Dalton of Montogomery County, Md., said, “I certainly believe that there are women who cannot start at the bottom, a tailboard rider in the suppression end of the fire game, who might do an outstanding job when brought in laterally doing the job of inspector, public educator, or whatever.”
Nancy Dennis Trench, a training director in Oklahoma felt that “what we’re addressing here is a basic problem of the fire service, not only of women in the fire service—everyone has to ride the tailboard and just because ‘I did it, you’ve got to, too’. . . I have some questions about that system . . . Because I was a fire fighter for three years, does that make me a good inspector?”
Stereotype handicap
Jane Areen, general counsel for the President’s Reorganization Project and a law professor at Georgetown University, regarded stereotyping as a hindrance to women in the fire service in two ways. In one sense, women can be at a great disadvantage when assuming positions that involve authority. Conversely, Areen commented, if there is only one woman in a particular field, people tend to generalize the performance of all women in the same position. Areen proposed that there should be a “critical minimum” of women in each field to demonstrate that individually, males and females adapt to a position in their own style.
Several women related their own experiences, which varied in different departments.
One fire fighter said, “I don’t think I had the normal interview . . . Many questions centered around the fact that I was married, what effect shift work would have on my marriage.”
Nance Stephen, assistant state fire marshal in West Virginia commented, “I have been accepted in my position; I have felt no discrimination from the men in the area. They have been accepting me, they have helped me train, they helped me learn.”
Floyd Yokum of the International Association of Fire Fighters, an admitted “traditionalist” said, “I want to repent . . . I’ve been impressed with the dedication I’ve seen from you gals and I want your forgiveness for what I’ve said in the past . . . I welcome the opportunity for women to come into the fire service.”
A final recommendation was made that the United States Fire Administration be used as a clearing house for effective programs to recruit, train, retrain and promote qualified women in the fire service.
