General Discussion > Women of the Fire Industry

Female Firefighters in the Media

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Alan (Big Al):
Women FF's can't be an OIC what the????? PIIIIP...... i think some one needs to be pistol whipped :roll:

bittenyakka:
alphone is correct sorry for any misunderstanding i caused.

Yes women can be the OIC, no matter what gender the OIC is they have the responsibility of delegating tasks.

5271rescue:
Does it matter if you are male or female as long as you can do the job,I would say that the media with the hand /help of someone  just took that point that there a female F/F and ran with it...

Ryan:
Scenario

Perfectly capable firefighter who is female sitting at home thinking "I wouldnt mind being a firefighter"  then she thinks it is such a male dominated area and she wouldnt get much of a chance.  Said female goes back to watching tv.  A few days later Miss Smith see's that Mt gambier MFS has a good percentage of female firefighters she thinks cool I wont be the only one in a male dominated area.

Its good the media do say that stuff cause it helps people and encourages them to join so they know they wont be out of their ocmfort zone.

Pipster:
On the other hand, taking the women who have joined, and lining them up in the media, often paraded around with the heirachy - along with comments which basically mean "look at us, we have women" - and thereby keeping those higher up the line happy, by "fullfilling" their Equity & Diversity requirements (or at least, it looks like it does, whether or not the service in question actually means it) - is not necessarily a helpful thing.   I am not referring to any specific service /brigade in the comment.

Particularly in areas that have very low numbers of female firefighters, taking the only female fire fighter in the area, and holding her up to the media is sometimes lining the female up to be shot (figuratively speaking).

I much prefer to see publicity about the fire service (whichever one it is) which has pictures which show the firefighters, some of which just happen to be women... or a relevant comment from a fire fighter, who just happens to be a female...

In this way, it is less of lining up the females to be shot, makes it more of a normal thing to have a female depicted - no hype, just that there happen to be male & females in the photo / publicity.

But having said that, going out on an all female crew can be a great publicity thing.... I have come across several members of the public (who had to stop out our road block, while the crew removed several trees that were blocking the road.)   The look on their faces was pricesless when they first come across the females at the road block, and have a chat to them, and then watch as the chainsaw operator stops, and puts the chainsaw down (having finished the tree) and removes the hemlet & coat...to show another female.  Then another female then has to move the appliance to allow the traffic through.....

The bulk of those watching would have assumed that the firefighters were male, and saw them doing the job quite well...and then found out they were female......which I suspect changed a few perceptions....

Pip
(In a brigade with a female Captain,& 7 female firefighters...)   :-D

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