A Different Kind of Battle for Female Firefighters

There was plenty of heat and flame Friday in Los Angeles--but nobody dared call for a fireman.

The 400 members of Women in the Fire Service gathered for this year’s international convention had everything under control as they hashed out issues facing female firefighters.

There were seminars on such things as wild-land fire behavior, high-rise blazes and juvenile firesetter intervention, which drew firefighters from across the United States and places such as Britain, the Netherlands, South Africa and Australia.

But the hottest topics were things rarely confronted in fire stations anywhere: fire crew sexism, dangers faced by pregnant firefighters and the effect of menopause on firefighting.

The firefighters were told that those kinds of problems can be handled as easily as a routine stove fire if they are approached the right way.

That was reassuring to those who have discovered that being recruited into a fire department doesn’t necessarily mean being welcomed into it.

“The fire service is the last bastion of men,” said Judi Imhoff, a firefighter from Toledo, Ohio. “Discussing these things can give you enough of an uplifting to go back and face the everyday gender bias.”

Virginia Combs, a Baltimore firefighter, added: “This makes it feel you’re not alone. That you really are appreciated as a firefighter.”

Sian Griffiths, a firefighter with 14 years experience with the London Fire Brigade, predicted that she will return to England “with recharged batteries and a boosted spirit” and more determined than ever.

Female firefighters told of being harassed by male colleagues, of being ignored by male commanding officers and even of having their firefighting gear tampered with.

“My fiance is in the business field, and when I vent a little to him about what happens, he can’t believe it,” one firefighter said. “No one would ever get away with it in the business world. It’s a different code in a fire house.”

Another woman said she eyes male co-workers each shift wondering “if this guy’s going to talk with me today” or freeze her out with silence.

At a discussion of reproductive safety for female firefighters, women told of fire departments that do not give paid maternity leaves or refuse to offer nonhazardous duty to pregnant firefighters.

“Three-and-a-half weeks after childbirth I was called back to work and made to run a mile and a half and do sit-ups,” a North Carolina firefighter said. “I vowed I would never have another child while on the fire department.”

Experts on sexual harassment encouraged the women to cultivate allies in the fire station who not only will back them if formal complaints have to be filed but also will become catalysts for change.

Female firefighters “put up with a lot” to fit in at first, said Beatrice Lopp, equal employment opportunities director for the Los Angeles Fire Commission and a seminar leader. “But you get to the point where you know the job and you think, ‘I’m not putting up with this anymore, starting today.’

“Write a little note” to advise the harasser to stop. “And maybe [copy] it to the captain,” Lopp suggested.

Experts on workplace safety discussed such things as the dangers of carbon monoxide to fetuses and the inability of some physicians to understand the stresses placed on female firefighters.

Terese Floren, a former Ohio firefighter who is director of Women in the Fire Service, outlined goals for firefighters that include job protection and continued medical coverage during pregnancy, nonhazardous duty for expectant mothers and adequate leave for childbirth.

“If you set aside your rights” and return to work early to prove your toughness to male co-workers, “you’re setting a precedent” that could haunt women in the future, added Santa Clara Firefighter Patricia Doler.

Other discussions Friday were on topics such as transsexuals in the fire service. Los Angeles Fire Capt. Michele Kammerer, herself a transsexual, helped moderate that panel.

Firefighters also received weight training tips for women from Reno Firefighter Tammy DiAnda--who reminded them “you ladies are in the top 1%” physically.

There were a few men in Friday’s crowd. One was a Rockford, Ill., firefighter who was sent by his union after his name was drawn in a lottery. But were most firemen rolling their eyes at the convention?

“Absolutely,” said Alicia Mathis, a Los Angeles Fire Department inspector who helped organize it.