Right: Melbourne's fire brigades evolved from horse-drawn tankers with manual pumps to the 1940s motorised trucks and equipment. Brass helmets protected the firefighters in those early days, but the helmets were not worn by women.
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Arguments in favour of setting quotas for female representation in firefighting
1. The current low representation of women in firefighting means a large recruitment pool is being neglected
There has been a general decline in the number of volunteer fire fighters in rural areas in Australia. A study conducted in 2007 by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (Bushfire
CRC) at Latrobe University, titled 'Volunteer firefighting: A Suitable Job for a Woman?', found that changes in employment patterns in rural Australia, including substantial unemployment, have resulted in many young men moving to cities and large towns making it difficult for volunteer fire fighting associations to maintain their numbers.
The researchers concluded that 'many rural regions are, effectively, ageing faster than the general community' and that the pool of potential fire fighters is therefore diminishing.
A Bushfire CRC study conducted in 2005 noted that volunteer fire fighting is a very gendered activity. Women accounted for between 11 and 25% of volunteer fire fighter numbers, with the majority of women volunteers serving in support roles (communications, administration, logistics) rather than in an active, operational fire fighting capacity. The 2007 Latrobe Bushfires CRC researchers, citing this earlier research, concluded, 'Thus, women represent an under-utilised potential source of volunteers, and an increase in their participation rate in fire service volunteering would ease pressures on agencies desperate to maintain volunteer numbers.'
Currently, only 3% of the state's operational Country Fire Authority (CFA) staff is women, and only 3.3% of the MFB's staff is women. Of the more than 35,000 volunteer firefighters in Victoria only 15% are female.
Recent recruitment patterns in some states have indicated the extent to which women can meet the need for additional firefighters. In an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald on September 5, 2013, it was noted, 'More than 40 per cent of the latest Fire and Rescue New South Wales graduates are women. It marks a major milestone for the organisation, where women only make up 4 per cent of full-time employees.' Ten of the twenty-four graduates were women. The number of women applying increased after a targeted recruitment campaign in 2012.
The Australia Capital Territory Fire and Rescue launched a push for more female firefighters at the end of 2015. It pledged that half of the 16 applicants accepted in the most recent recruitment round would be women. The number of female applicants rose to 144, compared to only 26 in the last recruitment round in 2012. The number of overall applications has also more than doubled, with 802 total applications, compared to 395 in 2012.
Increasing numbers of women applicants in both New South Wales and the ACT have been used to argue that women offer a solution to the need to attract more firefighters to this service.
2. Increasing the diversity of gender and cultural background in firefighting services would improve efficiency
Supporters of increased numbers of women in firefighting services would increase the range of skills and abilities the force can draw on.
Jim Higgins, the chief executive of the Melbourne Fire Brigade (MFB), has stated, 'We are seeking to increase diversity at MFB because it is proven to improve innovation, problem solving and decision-making and to ensure that we are equipped to deliver the best public safety outcomes for the communities we serve.'
New South Wales firefighter, Peta Doyle, currently working out of the City of Sydney Fire Station has been a firefighter for over three years. She came to firefighting after years of training as a professional athlete, having competed at state, national and Olympic trials and represented Australia at various World Cup Swimming Championships. After leaving swimming, firefighter Doyle was a qualified personal trainer and worked at her local swimming pool. Ms Doyle found it relatively easy to meet the physical fitness criteria necessary to become a firefighter; however, she argues that she brings more than this to the job.
Ms Doyle has stated, 'A reasonable amount of fitness and strength are necessary, but what is really important is an ability to think outside the box, learn quickly and take a very proactive approach to your work.'
Doyle has further stated, 'As a fully qualified firefighter I can specialise in other fields and I am keen to develop my rescue qualifications and to operate a Bronto (a 37 metre high ladder platform for high-rise rescues and firefighting) so I can help respond to major emergencies. In the future I'd also like to train new firefighting recruits and I think working as a station officer (who leads a team of firefighters and coordinates the crew at an incident) could also be rewarding.'
It has been argued that every member of a firefighting service comes with unique prior experience that is potentially of value. For some recruits this may be particularly the case in the area of interpersonal skills.
Alex Johnson, an operational group manager in Derbyshire, England, has stated, 'Women bring a different dimension to the fire service.' Ms Johnson expanded, 'Women can appeal to other women about safety in the home, for example, in a way men can't.'
A promotional brochure put out by New South Wales Fire Brigades stresses the range of qualities that any firefighter requires. The brochure states, 'Firefighting is a career which requires strength of body and character. It's a job where you get to make use of many skills, not just one. While physical strength and endurance are necessary attributes to do the job, a balance of additional qualities are equally as important to ensure your success as a firefighter.'
3. Quotas can be set for greater female inclusion without compromising safety
Those who support increasing the number of women in firefighting argue that this can be achieved without in any way endangering the public.
Supporters of increasing the number of women serving as fire fighters argue that often all that needs to be done is to conduct an advertising campaign so that women recognise that this is an area possibly available to them.
On February 23, 2016, The Canberra Times ran an article which claimed that a five-fold increase in the number of women applying to become firefighters in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) had been attributed to a massive recruitment drive and marketing campaign.
About one in five applicants for ACT Fire and Rescue's 2016 recruit college were women accounting for 144 of the 802 applications received compared to the last recruitment process in 2012 when just 26 of the 395 applicants were women.
ACT Fire and Rescue are hopeful that the dramatically increased number of female applicants will result in a significant increase in the number of women firefighters in the service. However, ACT Fire and Rescue is intending to achieve this objective without lowering the fitness standard expected of recruits.
Richard Maloney, the ACT Fire and Rescue commander has claimed, 'There's been no change to the [recruitment] process... or standards.'
The Melbourne Fire Brigade has also indicated that it will not be lowering its standards. Ken Latta, the former chief executive of Melbourne Fire Brigade, stated in 2010 'What is wrong with wanting more female...applicants? They won't get in if they can't pass the test and the test is not changing. Out of around 2,000 applications last year only 77 women wanted to be firefighters. Do women make good firefighters? Ask one; they'll tell you they do. It's just that many don't think it's a job that will suit them so they don't apply.'
Regarding the concern of Peter Marshall, the secretary of the United Firefighters Union, that the 'order of merit' will be compromised, supporters of the quota argue this will have no significant effect. The Melbourne Fire Brigade has set a quota of only 5% female representation within its ranks. These women are all required to have passed the Brigade's physical aptitude test. If a very small number - up to 5% - are accepted who are less able than some of the men against whom they were competing, that will have no significant impact on the competence of the Brigade.
James Campbell, writing in an opinion piece published in The Herald Sun on February 4, 2016, stated, 'The MFB will be able to hire anyone from the pool [of candidates who passed the selection tests] and one of their criteria will be gender diversity - but only to fulfil the aim of reaching the stratospheric level of 5 per cent.'
4. Including more women would break down the discriminatory and bullying culture within firefighting
Those looking to increase the number of female fire fighters argue that increased numbers of women in fire fighting services would shift the gendered culture and break down the discrimination women firefighters often face.
A study conducted in 2007 by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (Bushfire
CRC) at Latrobe University, titled 'Volunteer firefighting: A Suitable Job for a Woman?', surveyed women firefighters in Victoria on the extent of the discrimination they had encountered. 38% indicated that they had faced verbal public derogation of their suitability for fire service volunteering. 30% said they had been given restricted opportunity to participate in fighting fires. 17% said they had been given limited opportunity to take on leadership roles. While 5% said they had been denied opportunities to undertake specialist training.
Discrimination has an uglier face in some firefighting services. In October 2009 Cindy Branch-Smith submitted a thesis toward a Bachelor of Science (Psychology) Honours degree undertaken at Edith Cowan University. The thesis is titled 'A Qualitative Exploration of Women Firefighters' Experience in the Western Australian Volunteer Bushfire Service' and draws on a wide range of research. Birch considers two 2006 studies of levels of sexual harassment experienced by women firefighters in the Country Fire Authority (CFA) in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory Rural Fire Service (RFS) , with 16% of the RFS and 15% of the CFA participants reporting harassment of this nature. The main forms of sexual harassment were reported in both studies as offensive sexual innuendo, verbal abuse, unwanted sexual advances, and inappropriate touching.
It has also been suggested that there is a significant incidence of workplace bullying in fire stations. On December 15, 2015, The Age reported that the state government had asked the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, to examine gender equity and workplace bullying within the Melbourne Fire Brigade(MFB) and the Country Fire Authority(CFA).
The president of the MFB, Andi Diamond, has acknowledged there may be some problems. Ms Diamond stated, 'Anecdotally we do hear it's difficult and the industrial environment makes it difficult for women to come back to work. It is a difficult workplace culture; we need to build a constructive culture.'
It has been claimed that predominantly male workplaces tend to prompt negative attitudes toward female employees. The Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, has stated, 'We know that lack of women within an organisation often reflects systemic discrimination.'
5. Women have been integrated into a number of other traditionally male occupations
Supporters of increased numbers of women in firefighting services have noted that women have been recruited in far greater numbers into other traditionally male workplaces.
One instance often given is the increasing number of women within police forces in both Australia and overseas.
The Victoria Police 2013-14 annual report states there were 3607 female sworn police, including PSOs and recruits, or 24.7 per cent of a total 14,612 police.
A Victoria Police recruitment marketing manager, Rachel Brown, said excluding PSOs and recruits, the ratio of women police had slowly risen from 17.7 per cent in June 2003 to 26.2 per cent in January 2015.
In New South Wales, 35% of the total police workforce is women, with 27% of sworn police officers being women. Thirteen superintendents are women and there is one female Deputy Commissioner.
The number of women in policing across Australia has grown markedly over the last 45 years. In 1971, women constituted just 1.8 per cent of police personnel. In 1996, 13.5% of police officers in Australia were female. In 2005, 20.9% of sworn police officers across Australia were women and by 2006 the number had increased to 23%. In 2011, the national participation rate had reached approximately 26 per cent.
Another traditionally male area into which women have gradually been integrated is Australia's defence forces. Women have served in Australian armed forces since 1899. Until World War II women were restricted to the Australian Army Nursing Service. This role expanded in 1941-42 when the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force established female branches in which women took on a range of support roles. While these organisations were disbanded at the end of the war, they were re-established in 1950 as part of the military's permanent structure. Women were integrated into the services during the late 1970s and early 1980s and can now serve in most positions in the Australian Defence Force (ADF), including combat roles.
In the 1989-1990 financial year women filled 11.4% of permanent ADF positions. In the 2005-2006 financial year women occupied 13.3% of permanent positions and 15.6% of reserve positions. During the same period the proportion of civilian positions filled by women in the Australian Defence Organisation increased from 30.8% to 40.3%.