Many Women Strong A Handbook For Women Firefighters

Women have a long history as firefighters, yet only recently have significant numbers of women begun to choose the fire service as a career. While some volunteer fire departments have included women for years, many others are beginning to do so only now. A woman considering volunteer service or a career as a firefighter often has many questions. What does the work involve? How can I best prepare myself for it? What are the challenges and rewards of firefighting? How will the fire department and the other firefighters accept me? This handbook was created to help women who would like to become career, volunteer, or seasonal firefighters, as well as those who have just started on the job and are seeking guidance. It offers insights and suggestions from women who have been there: female firefighters, officers, and chiefs from all across the country. It attempts to present firefighting as it really is--neither glamorized nor trivialized--and to share answers to questions women commonly have...

This handbook was created to help women who would like to become career, volunteer, or seasonal firefighters, as well as those who have just started on the job and are seeking guidance. It offers insights and suggestions from women who have been there: female firefighters, officers, and chiefs from all across the country. It attempts to present firefighting as it really is--neither glamorized nor trivialized--and to share answers to questions women commonly have about working in this still nontraditional field.

When an organization moves away from a generations-long tradition of being all-male toward a future that includes men and women equally, a significant change takes place. Change can be upsetting and threatening to those who are used to, and invested in, the way things "have always been." Fire may know no gender, but people do, and the fire chief of the 1990's spends more time managing people than controlling fire. Increasing numbers of women are becoming firefighters and fire officers, entering and advancing in a field that is still heavily male by both population and tradition. Fire service leaders who are not prepared to manage these workforce changes may find their workforce is managing them instead.