Women In Firefighting

in an attempt to increase the diversity the fire service have introduced methods such as appointing an equality and diversity officer to the community who is there to discuss and talk to women and ethnic minority groups about the career opportunities they would encounter if they joined the fire service. The service has introduced a 10 year strategy which has a goal of improving the way the workers treat each other across all parts of the Service but also the effectiveness of the relationship that they have with the public. The strategy has 5 different areas which the service aims to work on to improve diversity.The first is Leadership and promoting inclusion where they want individuals to ‘undertake their role in promoting equality and diversity and ensure any practice or procedure they have responsibility for is effectively equality impact assessed’. The second is accountability which will include the workers making ‘evidence available to the public annually on improvements to service delivery and employment practice, including progress against the employment targets through its website’. The third area is Effective service delivery and community engagement. This aims to involve community and voluntary groups in policy development including members of minority ethnic, religious, disabled, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, men and women, and all age groups more within the work of the fire

2). Within the past three decades, there has some “discussion about the pros and cons of adding women in large numbers to the rank and file of to the USA police system” (Mastrofski, 2007, p. 4). According to Zhao (et al, 2006), we have a rising number of female officers on the force compared to past decades, which suggest a growing consensus that adding women to law enforcement is a good idea.

Being a female in law enforcement can be challenging at times but however the reward will outweigh the risk. What exactly does happen when females join in “the biggest boys club in America”? Sandra K. Wells and Betty L. Alt are the authors of Police Women Life With A Badge where they discuss the struggles of female police officers seeking to reach top ranking positions; their efforts can be identified as failure, success, politics, and fair play. This book not only presents the struggles of the current problems as a female police officer but past problems as well. Wells and Alt provide a brief history of females in law enforcement through the eyes of female officers. This book outlines where women started in the criminal justice system to where

When it comes to race within law enforcement, male police officers still question whether women can handle the dangerous situations and physical confrontations that officers may be confronted with, while it is shown that most police women have easily met the expectations of their superiors. Indeed, studies have found that, in general, male and female officers perform in similar ways. In addition, research has found that most citizens have positive things to say about the work of police women (Worden,

Even in today's world of political correctness, there is still a very large gender bias when it comes to certain things, such as Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The number of men in the field is much higher than the number of women. Women, for the most part, are looked at as not being as capable of performing what is required of an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) or a Paramedic as men are. EMTs and Paramedics are required to make split second, possibly life saving decisions, lift large amounts of weight, and work long hours in all conditions. Since most women are physically smaller than most men are, they are viewed as not being strong enough to lift patients or equipment in many situations.

In dangerous situations, the ability to think quickly and clearly is more important than physical strength. Female officers have a less aggressive style which cause for less arrest and the ability to de-escalate violent encounters by using their communications skills more often than male officers. According to a 2013 FBI study, 27 police officers were killed in the line of duty, with only two of these deaths being female officers (FBI 2013). Female have a stronger verbal skills and results in a lesser likelihood of injury on the job. Women are more nurturing then a man

Qualitative research methods are used to examine the perceptions of women police regarding their career opportunities and trajectories, and their experiences with regard to the culture, practices, and policies of policing. Purposive sampling was used to identify and recruit a representative number of policewomen as study participants. Subjects completed surveys and participated in in-depth interviews. Data was analyzed through the use of constant comparative procedures, with member checks and interrater reliability scores obtained to ensure trustworthiness of the data.

About 346,000 are career and paid firefighters. 788,000 are volunteer and don’t get paid for their time. Only seven percent of all these firefighters are women which leaves ninety-three percent being male. The classes of fire are categorized by what burns. Class

Gender inequality still plays a huge role in today’s society. Women comprise only a small percentage of the local law enforcement agencies across the nation. Women have been a part of law enforcement since the 20th century but have only been noticed within the last 40 years. Back in the 1970’s women rarely held positions in law enforcement and if they did it was mainly clerical/desk positions. Even though the amount of women in law enforcement today has increased, women still only make up roughly around 13 percent of the law enforcement work force (Public). Women can make such an impact in the Law Enforcement field if given a fair chance but they may face many problems when doing so. Some say that women don’t belong, while others suggest

A big topic in the duties of firefighting is why there are more men than women firefighting. Numerous people would think that a woman can’t do the entire cautionary details that it takes to become one. Here is what a woman by the name of Charlotte Whitton has to say about these rumors, “Whatever woman do they must do twice as well as men to be half as good, luckily this is not difficult” (Winters). One explanation to this outbreak is there are many laws protecting women, children, age, minorities, and religious beliefs that many firefighters break everyday that they are on the job. Many women have to endure a workplace that is well suited for male- dominated firehouses unlike that of the 1940’s than of the 21st century. One of the only setbacks for women to worry about when trying to become a firefighter is the physical ability test. Why you might ask, well most women aren’t as strong in the upper body as men usually are, that is not to say that women could weight lift to increase her chances of succeeding. Part of the time that female are at a fire station they get sexually harassed by the male firemen. There have been cases of men hiding video cameras in small place to video tape these ladies and show it to the whole fire house, but in these

Firemen, while intimidating to the general public, are widely accepted and respected. This means that they serve as an embodiment of the public as a whole. In their hands fire is used to

According the agency of the Department of Homeland Security states that motor vehicles crashes are the leading cause of death for an on-line duty fireman. Other significant causes of death are: caught/trapped (10%), fall (5%), collapse (3%), and other (7%). Intentions of firefighters are to make the community safe as possible, but we the people need to think twice before we do anything else when dealing with fire. The other things that it 's a national problem for firefighters is not wearing their seat belts when driving out to an emergency. They are so focused on saving our lives when first it 's supposed to be the opposite, their safety is first, but firemen put their lives at risk.

Every day, people see the fire department out doing their job, and if you take a close look you will see mostly males doing this job. This is because people assume it is a male's job only; well slowly, that is changing. According to National Fire Protection Association, “in 2012, there were about 3.4% of firefighters that are women” (“Firefighting”). But there still is a major shortage of women. Even with the shortage, of female firefighters bring an increase of fire safety on the fire grounds, so females should be encouraged to join their local departments.

While the average earnings for women still lag behind those of men, the March “Women at Work” report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), revealed that the gender wage gap continues to narrow. Women earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2010, up from 76 cents in 2000. Many attribute this to the higher college graduation rates of women. Women are gaining numbers in various fields of work and the perceptions of their fellow male colleagues are even changing. Captain Purnell Richardson, of the Baltimore City Police Department remembers a time when women were once viewed as inferior to men in the police field. “The women of the force were like the social workers. They took all the calls and did all the paper work at one point in time. They were even given a little bit of lead way in the Academy. The guys had to do 50 pushups and the women only had to do 30. But now a day’s some of these women have more heart than the men. They are quick to draw their weapon and they will have your back. We have some tough women in our force.” Crystal Kidd is a Lieutenant with the Baltimore Police Department, she says, “You have to make a name for yourself in the force. I like when I hear people say they don’t like me or I’m a bitch. To me that just means I am doing my job. I have a zero tolerance for nonsense and that is the only way you will get respect around here. Some

Employment opportunities for the female police officer are large. Women will be recruited for many jobs in the field to expand the pool of potential sworn officer. It should be a goal off policing to recruit females so they can be recognized on the streets, making it more of a position that women not in the field of police work an option as a career choice. Allen (1973) States, about women police officers, “any question of the value of their contribution to the solution of police problems has long ago been relegated to the limbo of things proved and taken completely for granted.” (p.213) The status of women police officers has grown since the beginning of women in the law enforcement field. As many might think that it is an overwhelmingly large amount, it is still generally a small amount. “Women were 37% of the labor force in 1979, 45% by 1992 Women hold less than 5% of all senior management jobs across the US. Women's representation in