My Experience as a Woman in Wildland Firefighting
Holding boss life on a prescribed burn
Hey ladies!
I just want to say that I have never experienced harassment or degrading treatment by anyone I’ve worked with in fire.
I was the only woman on a 20-person hand crew my first year of fire and the guys were always quick to teach me things or answer questions. They were my brothers and they took care of me.
In my first ten seasons I worked with very few women. Some were mentors with tons of experience, others were crew members in the same experience range as me, and some I considered myself a mentor to. All of them were incredibly capable and right up there with the guys while hiking or working on the fireline, but there just weren’t many of us.
The past few years I’ve been around more women firefighters than ever before. I’ve watched mentors rise up the ranks into high level forest positions and I know several hotshot captains, squad bosses and leads who are rad women. The hotshot crew I was on had three of us and the other two were a saw team, which is rare to see on the fireline and incredibly inspiring.
We’ve hired more women on the module and it’s been great to see our numbers skew towards 30-40% women some seasons. One memorable initial attack fire it was just four of us from the crew (who all happened to be women) and it was so fun and out of the ordinary to have an all lady fireline crew representing our module.
Generally, women make up about 12% of federal wildland firefighters. I’ve heard stories of women being put down or diminished because of their gender, but I’ve found that it’s like anything. If you allow it, it will keep happening.
This is not victim blaming for serious physical or emotional harassment, that is completely different. I’m just saying that it was hard for me at first to speak loudly and confidently and lead others as a woman. When I was wishy washy or not sure of myself, everyone picked up on that energy and didn’t respect me or my decisions because it was obvious that I didn’t either.
It may take a while, but you will find your place in fire as long as you work as hard (or harder) than anyone else, don’t complain, or have a bad attitude. At 5 feet tall, I will never have the physical capacity of a 6 foot 2 dude, but I can still carry my weight on the crew. I can always find ways to contribute and be part of the team.
Also, your body is capable of so much more than you ever thought possible. It’s important to find your mental and physical barriers and push through them.
Raise the bar for yourself. You can hike with any amount of weight for a short while. You can run faster. Hike farther. Dig line more efficiently. Become a better crewmember or leader. You will earn respect by putting the work in.
Be direct. Find what you’re best at and use it to your advantage. Work on your weaknesses. Think before you speak. Clarify if anything is confusing. Volunteer for special missions or difficult tasks. Confront others individually if there’s a problem, never go to a supervisor if it’s something you can solve yourself. You are capable.
Help other women as you come up. We need to rely on each other instead of seeing each other as competition. There’s plenty of work to be done.
The raddest female saw team taking a break to sharpen their chainsaw
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