Editorial: If we want more female firefighters, LAFD needs to end its inherent inhospitality to women

For more than two decades, Los Angeles has been trying — and failing — to significantly increase the number of women in the Fire Department. In 1994, about 2% of the department was women; by 2015, it had only increased to 2.7%, or 89 out of 3,200 employees.

That’s a disappointment by any measure. Yet now, the department is once again preparing to invest in another recruitment effort. The plan presented to fire commissioners last week is not a bad one because it goes beyond setting up information booths at career fairs. This time it targets women such as student athletes and veterans who might be interested in strenuous jobs, and it retools the outreach and testing process. Nevertheless, it is doomed to failure if no effort is made to end the Fire Department’s inherent inhospitality to women.

Increasing gender and ethnic diversity in the Fire Department is one of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s stated goals, and it’s a worthy one. Having more women is part of doing away with the frat house culture that has made the department vulnerable to workplace discrimination lawsuits. Plus, it’s the right thing to do; these well-paying jobs should be open to everyone, male or female.

But the fact is, they are not, because the training regime for firefighters favors men. Of course there are plenty of women who can sling heavy hoses and break down doors and want nothing more than to put out fires. But what about those who don’t have the brute strength needed to complete the fire academy but could be outstanding inspectors or paramedics?

Lowering fire training standards is not the answer, but rethinking when to apply them might be. Why must every member of the Fire Department be trained to respond to fires, when it turns out that that’s only a small part of what department employees do? The LAFD has clung too long to an outdated model in which fire suppression is the main mission, even though about 90% of the calls that come in are for emergency medical service.

Even dispatchers and fire inspectors must complete the same physically rigorous fire training. That’s nuts, and until it changes, the department will continue to have problems attracting and keeping women.

The mayor is reportedly looking at additional fire department reforms, which may include creating new job classifications to help increase the number of women in the department. Presumably, those would be jobs that don’t require the same level of fire training. That could be a good idea, assuming it isn’t simply a return to a 20th century version of the LAFD, in which paramedics and firefighters held separate but unequal jobs within the department.

It won’t be easy. The firefighters union has historically held tight to the existing culture and resisted efforts at reform. Fortunately, Garcetti was elected on a promise of standing up to public employee labor unions and updating city services to address modern needs.

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