Women in Firefighting (#20003)
Women in Firefighting (#20003)
Six firefighters, including paramedics, a lieutenant, and a fire chief. "I was twenty-five years old when I realized, hey, I can do this!" says one firefighter. "Sometimes I wish I would have started this earlier, but I didn't know anybody like me growing up. Everybody I knew had proper jobs for women at the time."
“Highly recommended - a valuable source of real-world career information” – School-to-Work News.
Program length: 15 minutes
From Women in Firefighting :
Copyright © Jocelyn Riley
“I met this woman playing softball on my softball team who was a volunteer firefighter and I just looked at her and went, I can do that. If she can do that, I can do it.”
“I was working at a local daycare center and a couple of things motivated me to look for something else. One was that’s a minimum-wage job, and I had loans from college and so on and I couldn’t pay them off and work there. And the other thing was that I wanted a job that was somewhat more physical, because I’m a physical person.”
“One of the things I’ve learned is that firefighters in general, good firefighters, are very nurturing and compassionate people. And that’s true of men firefighters as well as it is of women firefighters.”
“What I like best about being a firefighter is the time that it gives me, the flexibility in the work schedule. I get to spend a lot of time from my kids and do other things than just work. My kids love it.”
“I ended up loving the fire service for its diversity and its ability to offer me a lot of challenges emotionally and mentally and physically.”